item cttemant Deana 
1906] BRIEFER ARTICLES 447 
and Minnesota are rather far north for its range. The farthest north I 
have found it in Illinois is in the town of Niles, just north of Chicago. 
Nor can I find any record of its occurrence in the more northerly counties 
of the state, where, if occurring at all, it is evidently very scarce. Dr. 
FRIEDRICH BRENDEL of Peoria, in an article on ‘‘The trees and shrubs of 
Illinois,” says ‘‘The pin oak (Q. palustris Du Roi) I have never seen 
around Peoria, nor did, as I learn by letter, Mr. HALL in Menard County; 
it occurs in St. Clair and Marion Counties; in Wisconsin and Cook County 
(fide Mr. JacKson).’”’> The credit to Wisconsin is doubtless due to Dr. 
Lapua, already cited. South of Chicago this oak appears in the southern 
part of Cook County in the town of Thornton, extending sparingly up 
Thorn Creek for a short distance, where it grows in company with Q. 
ellipsoidalis. It is most abundant east of the village of Thornton, making 
a good part of a wood growing in a soil of sandy peat, patches of sphagnum 
being common under the trees. Eastward it is found in occasional spots 
and in similar soils, and in the clayey soils of swamps in Lake and Porter 
Counties, Indiana. It comes into the dune region of Lake Michigan north 
of the village of Porter, in a sandy humus soil similar to that near Thornton. 
Southward from here in Indiana it increases in frequency and abund- 
ance. In eastern Illinois it reappears south of the Thorn Creek localities 
after one crosses the range of hills here forming the water-shed of Lake 
Michigan basin (the Valparasio moraine), and is oe along: the 
Kankakee River at Momence. 
Whether Q. ellipsoidalis occurs south of the most northern counties of 
Indiana there is no evidence at hand to show. Some time spent in examin- 
ing the flora in the vicinity of North Judson and English Lake in Stark 
County did not reveal its presence, though the pin or Spanish oak was 
common along the Kankakee River there. Specimens of oaks sent from 
Bluffton in the eastern part of the state, a short distance south of Fort 
Wayne, lacked this: species, but contained Q. palustris and Q. texana 
Buckley. - ' 
It is evident from this survey that Q. ellipsoidalis replaces to a large 
extent in the north of the Middle West the more southerly Q. palustris. 
But it is usually with a different and drier habitat, and an adaptability 
to a wider range of conditions. The boundaries of the two overlap in 
southern Michigan, northern Indiana, northern ‘Illinois, eastern-central 
Towa, possibly in southern Wisconsin. It may also be of interest to add 
that the northern bounds of another biennial fruited oak, the shingle oak 
(Q. imbricaria) correspond quite generally with those of Q. palustris.— 
-E. J. Hitz, Chicago. 
5 Illinois Agricultural Report 1859:596. 
