Additional Facts Concerning the Hybrid Oaks Quercus nana X 

 Quercus marylandica (Q. Brittoni Davis) ^ 



William T. Davis 



Owing to forest fires the interesting oaks considered to be hy- 

 brids between Quercus nana and Quercus marylandica (Q. Brit- 

 toni Davis), discovered at Watchogue, Staten Island in 1892, have 

 never borne many acorns. An account of the trees was given in 

 the Proceedings of the Natural Science Association of Staten 

 Island for September, 1892, and also in the Bulletin of the Torrey 

 Botanical Club, Vol. XIX, p. 301, Oct., 1892. On October 22, 

 1905, these trees, or what was left of them, were examined by a 

 party of ten botanists from the New York Botanical Garden and 

 Columbia University, and they proved of as much interest to them 

 as they did to the writer when they were first discovered. 



In the Proceedings of the Natural Science Association of Staten 

 Island for February 18, 1905, there is an account of one of these 

 hybrid oaks growing near Lower Jamesburg, Middlesex Co., N. 

 J., by the side of the road leading to Matchaponix. The tree is 

 described as being about fifteen feet high with a single trunk, 

 smooth bark, and lighter colored foliage than the black-jack oak. 

 The leaves are rusty pubescent beneath, the pubescence being more 

 generally spread over the surface than in marylandica^ though 

 not so close as the white down of nana. This tree was later cut 

 down by a negro in making a clearing for his home. A number 

 of other trees more or less resembling this one have since been 

 found in the vicinity of Lower Jamesburg, particularly in the 

 open woods on the easterly side of South River. Some of these 

 trees bore a considerable number of acorns, and in September, 

 1908, three lots were collected, one from what were unquestion- 

 ably Q. nana bushes, another lot from Q. marylandica, and the 

 third from what was considered a hybrid between the two. The 



1 Presented at the meeting of the Section of Biology, May 12, 1913. 



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