3S4 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD SCIENCE. 



fruit, though it bear no young leaves, while in this case there would be in 

 spring an almost absolute winter-like stagnation of the vegetation. It has 

 certainly an annual fructification, but is in every respect, except in the 

 number of the large stamens (6-8 and often more), a regular Black-oak. 

 The acorn is always long pointed, whence the name Torrey gave it, .1^. 

 oxyadenia, (Sitgr. Rep. tab. 17), is not inappropriate. 



A southern variety of this species is shrubby, with smaller leaves, occa- 

 sionally pubescent, and with smaller but very abundant fruit. From the 

 often very similar ^. Wislizeni it can, even without fruit, always be distin- 

 guished by the dull, pale upper surface of the leaves, which is usually con- 

 vex, and by the absence of reticulation on it. 



12. -$£. hyfoleuca I name an Arizona oak which Torrey, in Mex. Bound. 

 Rep. p. 207, referj< to ^. confertifolia, H. B. K., a species with biennial 

 fructification and slightly pubescent leaves. Our plant is characterized, • 

 besides its annual acorns, by lanceolate thick leaves with revolute mar- 

 gins and a white tomentose lower surface. The i;-lobed calyx is scarcely 

 hairy and bears 4 stamens ; no bracts seen even before the flowers open. 



13. ^. jiumila, Walt.Fl. Carol, p. 234. Michx. Sylv. tab. 17 (where the 

 fruit is erroneously represented as biennial, otherwise the figure is good). 

 This interesting shrub, though first described nearly a century ago, has 

 only, through the efforts of Dr. J. H. Mellichamp, become properly known 

 in the last few years. Living in the immediate vicinity of its habitat, the 

 pine barrens of the low country of South Carolina, this acute observer has 

 aided me in the most liberal manner in studying this as well as other dif- 

 ficult oaks of that region. 



^. pumila is called the Running-oak because by the aid of its wide- 

 spreading stolons it covers large patches, sometimes acres, with its thick- 

 ets. It is often, especially where kept down by the frequent fires, only 1-2 

 feet high, and has been seen loaded with flowers when only of 6 inches; 

 in other localities it grows 8-10 feet high, with stems i inch in diameter. 

 The leaves, revolute in vernation, are usually about 2 inches long, lanceo- 

 late, entire and often undulate, only occasionally denlate-lobed, but in 

 vigorous shoots sometimes broad ovate and deeply and acutely lobed ; 

 another form has obovate obtuse leaves. They are slightly pubescent 

 when young, but soon become quite glabrous, persist through the winter 

 and occasionally beyond the flowering period. In the male flowers I find 

 pretty regularly 4 stamens, and in the female 3 long recurved styles. The 

 globose fruit in its shallow cup is nearly sessile in the axils of the same 

 year's leaves. — ^. pumila, Walt., Michx. Sylv., Nutt. gen., Elliott Flor. ; 

 ^. Phtllos var. pumila, Mich. Querc. & Flor. ; ^. cinerea var. pumila, 

 Chapm., A. DeCand. Prod. 



Var. sericea has similar narrow, or larger, ovate-lanceolate leaves, al- 

 w.iys silky-white underneath ; the larger leaves on fertile branches grow 

 over 4 inches long by i\ inches in width, and on sterile shoots even larger. 

 — ^. sericea, Willd., Pursh.; ^. Phellos var. sericea. Ait. 



