An interesting Oak in New York City with brief notes 

 on Quercus Richteri Baen. 



Leon Croizat 



A curious Oak has recently come to the attention of the 

 writer in Fort Washington Park, Manhattan. The specimen 

 grows very close to the drive projected along the Hudson River 

 and now in course of construction. Thanks to the interest of 

 Mr. G. D. Clarke, consulting landscape architect, and of the 

 officials of the Department of Parks efforts are being made to 

 preserve this tree. 



This Oak is slightly more than 22 inches in diameter and 

 about 55 feet tall. It is located approximately one quarter of 

 a mile north from the foot of the slope crowned by the Pavilion 

 on Riverside Drive, which on the city maps stands almost in 

 line with West 190th Street, across Fort Tryon Park. 



The bark at the bole does not materially differ from the bark 

 of specimens of the red oak (Quercus horealis) of like size. The 

 main limbs arise 20 feet above the ground and tend to be pendu- 

 lous in the lowest tiers, wholly ascending above. The crown is 

 open, nearly dome-shaped. 



The leaves are borne in lax whorls at the extremity of the 

 glabrous branchlets. Their texture, except where altered as ex- 

 plained below, is exactly that of Q. horealis. They are dark green 

 with more or less of a bloom beneath as usual with the leaves of 

 that species. A juvenile covering of minute fascicled and stel- 

 late hairs is suggested by the few persistent trichomes of adult 

 leaves at the margin of the blade. Leaves of late growth, how- 

 ever, are subglabrous to glabrous on unfolding. 



The size of the leaf suggests the Red Oak's but the outline is 

 not the usual one of the species. The upper half to two thirds 

 of the blade shows some 5 acuminate, long and narrow lobes, 

 1-5-toothed, the teeth long-aristate. The sinuses are mostly 

 narrow, irregular in outline, some triangular with the opposite 

 margins overlapping, others more or less openly quadrangular, 

 the bottom of the sinus almost parallel with the midrib. The 

 lower half or third tends to be abruptly constricted, the blade- 

 tissue in some leaves barely exceeding the thickness of the mid- 

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