56 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 
one having been cut down and one is dead though still standing. 
Since they are so close as now to be uniting at the base and have the 
habit of those springing from a stump, this seems the true explanation 
of the group. This is important for it suggests if it does not imply 
the same habit in the tree from which they have sprung. The three 
trees agree in having the stamens, or perhaps more properly, the fila- 
ments of the aments transformed into styles. Numerous flowers have 
been examined without finding any ordinary stamens. Such may be 
produced as the aments are borne in profusion. Sometimes the styles 
or transformed filaments are a little enlarged at the base, but no ovules 
or traces of them have been found. A minute embryological investi- 
gation has not been undertaken. Another teratological feature is the 
branching or forking of the rachis, or the production of leaves at its 
end. In this is seen a tendency of the ament to change its function 
from the reproductive to the vegetative. Since the styles are trans- 
formed filaments or substitutes for them, it may be asked, in the casé 
of a moneecious plant at least, whether the male or female element is 
at the farthest remove from the vegetative. These aments are short 
lived, lasting about as long as ordinary male aments. The normal 
pistillate flowers are also regularly produced, and since the trees ripen 
an abundance of acorns the change in no way seems to interfere with 
their reproductive power. Cross fertilization becomes a necessity in 
this case, the trees being functionally dicecious. Since this habit of 
the trees has been verified three springs in succession, it may be looked 
upon as fixed. In character they accord best with Q. coccinea, but are 
not typical, being one of the forms which closely approach Q. velutina. 
A detailed description of its peculiarities is subjoined. 
Aments producing styles or pistils in place of stamens. They até — 
from 1-3™ long including the peduncle, which is usually short, @ 
some cases 1™ long. Styles four or five, mostly four, flattened, about 
2™" long, projecting considerably beyond the rim of the calyx. The 
base is hairy, dark colored, and when enlarged oblong. They are palet 
above, slightly curved outward, with the tip usually enlarged like 
stigma, but smaller than the stigmas of the normal flower. he 
enlargement is commonly confined to three as if representing the three 
styles of the fertile flower. The calyx is hairy, narrowly urceolate; 
the four or five segments united two-thirds or three-fourths of the — 
way to the top. Its shape is more like that of the pistillate flower than 
the more open and campanulate calyx of the staminate flower. a 
Sania aacaimcaietie —— 
ares 
