IGl 



QUERCUS BERNARDIENSIS SP. NOV. 



By \V. Wolf, O.S.B. 



This is a species of the Lepidobalani. Apparently it is closely 

 related to Q. Boyntonii Beadle,* differing from it by more num- 

 erous lobes of the leaves, the whitish, instead of brownish tomen- 

 tum, the somewhat larger fruit, and obtuse scales of the cup. 

 Its presence has been observed repeatedly within the past ten 

 or more years, but only recently have full data been collected. 



It is a small tree of a maximum size of 14 meters and a trunk 

 diameter of 4.5 dm., or a shrub from a clump about 1.5 m. high, 

 with deciduous, firm leaves, at length puberulent or glabrous 

 branchlets, and a fissured and transversely broken gray bark. 

 The trunk is rather evenly straight; the branches, in older trees, 

 are rather few and spreading and not much crooked. 



The leaves are 6-18 cm. long, oblong, obovate, or cuneate- 

 obovate in outline, cuneate or rounded at the base, shallowly 

 7-13-lobed; the lobes ascending-triangular, obtuse or rarely 

 acutish, little less than one third to one half as deep as the width 

 from the midrib to the margin ; upper surface generally yellowish- 

 green and sooner or later becoming glabrous, lower side perma- 

 nently covered with a white or whitish tomentum of short hairs. 



The slender staminate aments are 2.5-9 cm. long, peduncle 

 included. Peduncle, rhachis and calyx are tomentulose; the 

 calyx 4-7-lobed, the lobes ciliate; stamens 3-8. The pistillate 

 flowers are sessile or short peduncled ; the styles short and rather 

 stout. 



The fruit is sessile or subsessile; the cup ii to 16 mm. broad 

 and about 10 mm. high, hemispheric or cupuliform, the edge thin, 

 the scales about ovate, obtuse or blunt, imbricated, and generally 

 densely grayish-tomentulose; the acorns oblong or oblong-ovoid 

 15-20 mm. long, 10-13 mm. thick, tomentulose at the apex, 

 one third to rarely one half included in the cup. 



Type specimen in Herb. St. Bernard College no. 1580 a and h. 



Its habitat is a low narrow strip along the Little River or as it 



* The species is known to the writer from description only. 



