ABOUT THE OAKS OF THE UNITED STATES. 405 
It is 40 feet high and well grown, has a “very dark, deeply cracked bark, which is red inside like Catesbei.” Leaves 
4, rarely 5-6 inches long, about half as wide, attenuated at base into a partially margined petiole, 3-6 lines long ; 
leaf itself oblong to obovate, sometimes almost rhombic ; sinuate with shallow obtuse lobes to divaricately dentate- 
lobed ; lobes obtuse, or acute and bristle-pointed, dark green and shining on upper surface, paler but glabrous and 
with some axillary down beneath ; leaves imbricative in vernation ; in early youth both sides, the lower more than 
the upper, are covered with the rusty, articulated pubescence of Catesbei ; male flowers with 4 large, pointed anthers. 
Acorns sessile ; cup hemispherical, turbinate, 8-10 lines wide, 5 or 6 high; nut oval, 8-9 lines high and 6-8 thick, 
$ or + covered by the cup. The leaves of seedlings are lanceolate to ebovate, spinulose-dentate or sinuate, rarely 
entire. In the seedlings of this plant as well as of the regular Catesbei none of the fulvous glandular pubescence, 
which is so characteristic of the young leaf of the grown plant, is yet developed. — One of the parents is doubtless Q. 
Catesbet, as, among other characters, this abundant rusty down proves; as the other, aquatica, cinerea, or falcata pre- 
sent themselves. Falcata is excluded by the form of its leaves ; cinerea might be the parent, as I formerly assumed, 
but the usually obovate outline of the leaf, as well as the character of the acorns, seem to point rather to aquatica. 
Q. CaTESBEI X LAURIFOLIA, a late discovery of Dr, Mellichamp, is found in the same wr eae {539 (17)] 
“in the cove with laurifolia and falcata, a tree 50 feet high, bark very much like that of the form 
Leaves lanceolate to ovate in outline, the uppermost narrower and entire, the lower wider, and sacs near the middle 
or 2, rarely with more, divaricate or even acuminate lobes, coriaceous, strongly reticulate above, persis- 
tent through the greater part of winter, 3-43 in i aa 3-2 or 2} inches wide, petioles } inch long; youngest leaves 
imbricate in bud, slightly downy below, frclees fila clades above, soon glabrate; leaves of vigorous shoots 
much larger and more lobed; acorn subglobose, 7-7} lines wide, about half immersed in a hemispherical, turbinate, 
downy cup 
The tree and its foliage resemble laurifolia, but the acorns and the shallow cup of this species are quite different ; 
the long falcate lobes of many leaves point to falcata or Catesbai as the other parent, while the larger size of the acorn 
and the deep cup indicate the latter as the most probable. Notwithstanding these oe of hybridity, the probability 
is not excluded that we may have nothing but an abnormal form of laurifolia before 
Q. IMBRICARIA X NIGRA. Q,. TRIDENTATA, Eng. in Hb. Q. nigra, var. sian DC. 1. c. 64. A single tree, 
rather small, which was soon afterwards destroyed, was found by me, in the autumn of 1849, on the hills 6 miles east 
f St. Louis, in company with both supposed parents and coccinea and rubra, together with some white-oaks. 
Foliage as well as fruit are of such decided character that the origin of this hybrid can scarcely be doubted ; the leaves 
are rather those of imbricaria, with a touch of the peculiar lobation of nigra, and the fruit is more like that of nigra. 
Leaves elliptical to obovate, entire or often coarsely 3-dentate at the apex, occasionally with a few teeth on the sides; 
4-7 inches long, two or three wide; base rounded or acutish ; upper surface dark, shining green, lower one pale, and 
in September not yet quite glabrate ; petiole 4-10 lines long. Acorns closely sessile ; the hemispherical, turbinate, 
canescent cup about half-enclosing the globose nut. 
Q. IMBRICARIA X PALUSTRIS * was observed by me a few years ago 8 miles west of St. Louis, in a little dell 
where imbricaria abounds; palustris, coccinea, and nigra, together with some white-oaks, were near by; the tree was 
only 8 inches in diameter, but in full bearing. It had, unfortunately, to give way to a railroad track ; but ripe fruit 
was obtained, which to Mr. Meehan of Germantown has furnished fine young plants, completely agreeing in character 
with the parent. — Leaves slightly revolute in vernation, though not as much as in imbricaria, pubescent, especially 
— - completely denudated before the end of May. Full-grown leaves, broad-lanceolate, most]. 
c 
Paat alee teeth, glabrous on both sides; about 4 inches long, 1} wide, rarely larger ; un- 
cles 3-4 lines long; cup moderately deep, turbinate at base, 6-7 lines wide, 3-4 high ; ovate, obtuse scales, canescent, 
with bright brown margins. 
3 IMBRICARIA X COCCINEA was first described and figured by Nuttall, about thirty years ago, under the name 
of Q. Leana, Nutt. Sylv. Contin. 1, tab. 5 bis; DC. 1.c. 62. The original tree was discovered by Mr. T. G. Lea, near 
Cicwali al is still in existence; soon afterwards, Dr. S. B. Mead found another tree in Hancock Co., Illinois. My 
specimen, obtained from the first Eecenene, has entire or sinuate or sopieaail or dentate-lobed leaves, 4-6 inches long 
and half as wide, and even in September slightly pubescent below ; lobes acute and bristle-pointed or quite obtuse ; 
base ee = a petiole 5-8 lines long; acorns similar to ree of coccinea, cnp shallower with obtuse scales. 
i tall’s figure have a cordate bas Dr. Mead’s tree is similar to Lea’s ; leaves apparently more com- 
only entire or porate bats 5-7 inches ai and half as wide, obtusish at base on a petiole 1 inch long; the 
pubescence has almost disappeared on the lower side of the autumnal leaf; acorns globose, covered 4} by the canes- 
cent cup. Prof. G. C. Swallow found a similar tree in Missouri; Mr. E. L. Greene sends another specimen from 
* See account of this hybrid by A. Braun, in Bot. Zeitung, 1871, 202-3; — from oe Gesellsch. naturf. 
Freunde zu Berlin, Dec. 20, 1870. — Eps. 
