140 



rib and of the primaries: here the lobes are much shorter, dis- 

 tinctly irregular as to depth, outline and indentation. In brief, 

 the blade is subflabellate, obovate in outline, much narrowed 

 at the base. 



The irregularity of the veins matches that of the blade. In 

 the upper half to two thirds the primaries resemble in the main 

 those of Q. horealis. Below they are coarser; they usually start 

 at a narrow angle from the midrib, then turn sharply outwards 

 to end in the tip of the lobe. This peculiar design is matched by 

 the equally peculiar rough tissue of the blade; not infrequently 

 this tissue wears down to translucent patches like the calloused 

 margin of the blade. On the spurs of the twigs and branches 

 shallowly lobed or nearly unlobed leaves occur. Only occa- 

 sional leaves are not constricted at the base. 



The wood of the twig is dark- to olive-brown usually with 

 a grayish glossy cast, quite brittle. The bud, seen in September, 

 is like that of Q. horealis but may have fewer scales. The fruit 

 also has the earmarks of the Red Oak's. The cupule is cup- 

 shaped, short-pedunculate, glabrous inside, covered with about 

 10 rows of triangular scales puberulous at first, later glabrous 

 or sparingly scurfy-hairy at the margins. About \ of the acorn 

 is inclosed by the cupule. 



The possibility of the tree under discussion being a hybrid 

 between the Red and the Pin Oak ffor which Q. Richteri Baen. 

 is believed to be valid; may be suggested but the writer believes 

 none of its characters warrant this assumption. Cultivars from 

 manifestly good species in Fagus, Acer, Tilia, etc., exhibit aber- 

 rant patterns of venation and leaf such as are also found in 

 certain hybrids of Quercus, UlmuSy Philadelphus, Sorbus, Cra- 

 taegus, Malus, Amygdalus, Aesculus and Tilia, and occasionally, 

 in single leaves of most any plant. The habit of a tree is apt to 

 show individual variations, and is always modified by the im- 

 mediate environment. In distincth" pubescent species (e.g., 

 Tilia platyphyllos) leaves of late growth are normally glabrous 

 or subglabrous. The discussion could easily be extended notic- 

 ing, for instance, that an Oak of mixed descent (e.g., Q. riin- 

 cinata) may bear fruits in fair amount, and that these fruits 

 are like those of one parent (Q. maxima), hybridism showing 

 almost exclusively in the leaf which thus may tend to assume 

 diagnostic value. The widest divergence of opinions obtains in 



