122 ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALABAMA 



RED AND BLACK OAKS 



Quercus falcata, ^Lx. {Q. diyitata (^ Marsh.) Sudw.*) Red Oak. 



(^Called ■■ Spanish Oak" by many northern writers on trees. ) 



This tree is too well known to require any description. It is 



sometimes i)lanted for shade (or left standing when the rest of the 



forest is cleared away), around farm-houses, and sometimes even 



in cities, and under such conditions often develops a trunk four or 



five feet in diameter ; but in the forest, where it has to compete 



with trees of the same or other species, specimens more than two 



feet in diameter are exceptional. The wood, like that of most of 



the following oaks (black oak group), is coarse and not very 



durable. It makes an inferior quality of staves and furniture, but 



is used more for fuel, and in frontier settlements for fence-rails. 



The bark is probably the red-oak bark used by country people for 



poultices, etc., and occasionally for tanning. 



Grows in dry woods, especially in ferruginous soils, and not 



usually in hammocks or other places well protected from fire. It 



is common in every region except 4, l-t and 15. where it is mi- 



known, or at least rare. 



The variety triloba, with three-lobed leaves, seems to be nothing but a 

 juvenile form, which may be expected ahnost anywhere within the range 

 of the species, especially in old fields. 



Quercus Pagoda, Raf. (0. nihra pagodacfolia (Ell.) Ashe) 



(Red Oak) 



Sometimes treated as a variety of the preceding, from which 

 it differs in having the leaves paler beneath, with shorter and more 

 numerotis lobes, and growing in damp soils. j As far as known its 

 economic properties are similar to those of Q. falcata. 



Grows mostly in alluvial bottoms of creeks and rivers. 



IB. Creek bottoms west of Falkviile. Morgan County. 

 3. Etowah. St. Clair, Jefferson and Talladega Counties. 

 6A. Occasional from Franklin County to Chilton County. 

 6C. Hale and Autauga Counties. 

 7. Sumter County to Lowndes County. 

 9. Sumter County. 



low. Wilcox, Marengo and Choctaw Counties. 



11 (?). In Monroe County opposite Choctaw Bluff on the Alabama 

 River. 



♦According to Prof. Sargent (Rhodora 17:39. 1915; 18:45-48, 1916) 

 this is the original Quercus rubra of Linnaeus : but to take up that name, 

 which for over 150 years was applied to a different tree, might be con- 

 fusing to non-scientific readers. 



tSee Sargent. Bot. Gaz. 65:427-428. 1918. On the last-named page 

 there is described another form, 0. rubra Icurophylla. which may grow in 

 .Alabama too, but I have never distinguished it. 



