282 



THE AMEEICAN 



Eock Chestnut Oak (yar. monticola, Mx.) is 

 also given as occurring in tlie Eastern States. 

 There lias evidently been much confusion in the 

 nomenclature of this group of Oaks. Michaux, 

 indeed, united into one species, Q. prinns, L., 

 not only the typical form (which is it?), but as 

 varieties four forms, several of which arc now 

 regarded as good species, including those above 

 described, and another which is known as the 

 Chinquapin Oak, or Dwarf Chestnut Oak. 



This is made a distinct species by Willdenow 

 under the name Quercus prinoides, and it is 

 considered a good species by late botanical 

 authors. It is a shi-ub of from two to six feet 

 in height, with leaves closely resembling those 

 of the Swamp White Oak {Q. bicolor, Willd.), 

 but much smaller, with an abundance of small, 

 sweetish acorns, and is usually found on poor 

 soil. It is common in the Eastern States, and 

 occurs also in Wisconsin and Iowa, but not, so 

 far as we are aware, in Illinois. 



We next take up a group of Evergreen Oaks, 

 in which the maturation of the fruit is like the 



[Fig. 175.1 



Live Oak— (QwercMSDirens, Ait.) 



preceding, annual. (Another group of ever- 

 green species comes in the next section.) lu 

 Mexico and California are several species of this 

 kind, but on the eastern side of the continent 

 we have only one, the Live Oak {Q. virens, Ait.) 

 This species is confined to the Southern and 

 Southwestern States, being found from the coast 

 of Virginia southward and westward. It has 



entire or nearly entire leaves, oblong and blunt, 

 almost leathery iu thickness, shining on the 

 upper surface and whitish beneath. They are 

 rather small, usually from 4 to 6 inches long. 

 The acorns are oblong and pointed, the sraooth- 

 ish cup enclosing about one-third of the fruit. 

 This species furnishes valuable timber. Michaux 

 and some of the older writers classed this with 

 the biennial fruiting species, but DeCandolle 

 and later authors place it in the annual fruiting 

 section, where, from its sweel acorns and the 

 absence of bristle-pointed leaves, it would natu- 

 rally seem to fall. 



BOTANICAL MISCELLANY. 



Classiiication of Oaks. 



Dr. F. Brendel, in the American JVaturalist 

 of May and June, furnishes a very elaborate 

 article on the history, nomenclature and classi- 

 fication of American Oaks. He goes back to 

 the first mention by a botanical author of an 

 American oak, in 1640, and follows up the his- 

 tory of new discoveries, and of methodical 

 arrangements, down to the latest enumeration 

 of DeCandolle. We make the following ex- 

 tracts, in which we think our readers will be 

 interested : 



Andre Michaux explored, from 1785 to 1796, 

 the forests of Eastern North America. He pub- 

 lished iu 1801 his "Histoire des Chenes de 

 I'Amerique Septentrionale,' in which, for the 

 first time, is pointed out a character very im- 

 portant to the methodical arrangement of the. 

 Oaks — the time of maturation. His arrange- 

 ment is the following: 



I. — The leaves not bristle -pointed; fruit peJuncled, 

 annual. 



Under tliis division be further classifies: 



1. Leaveslobed: Quercusobtusiloba,macrocarpa,li/rata, 



alba. 



2. Leaves toothed : Q. prinus, with five varieties, 



palustris, monticola, acuminata , pumila and tomen- 

 tosa. 



3. Loaves entire: Q. virens; but the fruits are, ac- 



cording to him, biennial. (This is corrected in his 

 later enumeration.) 

 IT. — Leaves bristle-pointed; fruit sessile , biennial. 



1. Leaves entire: Q. ^S«Mo«, with three varieties, Q. 



cinerea, Q. imbricaria, Q. lawi/oUa. 



2. Leaves with short lobes : Q. aquatica, Q. nigra, Q. 



tinctoria, with two varieties, and Q. triloba, 

 2. Leaves deeply lobed: Q. banisturi, Q. falcata, Q. 

 Catesbcei, Q. coccinea, Q. palusiris and Q. rubra. 



Persoon, in his "Synopsis Plantarum," 1805, 

 enumerates eighty-five oaks, of which forty-six 

 are American ; thirty from the eastern part of 

 North America, two Californ'an, and fourteen 

 Mexican. 



In Pursh's "Flora," 1814, are mentioned 

 thirty -four species; all are eastern except 

 agrifolia, and comprising all the species of 

 Michaux, with the additions of the younger 

 Michaux and Willdenow. In his arrangemeut, 

 the ripening- of the fruit takes the first place as 

 a diagnostic character ; the second, the presence 



