200 Eleventh Annual Report 



12. Quercus coccinea Muenchhausen. Black Oak. Red Oak. 

 Scarlet Oak. Plate 55. Bark of the trunk dark brown, irregu- 

 larly fissured, bark of the twigs smooth and reddish-brown, inner 

 bark red; winter buds ovoid, about 7 mm. (34 inch) long, somewhat 

 blunt at the apex, reddish-brown, more or less hairy, especially 

 near the apex; leaves oval or obovate in outline, 7-15 cm. (3-6 

 inches) long, truncate or wedge-shaped at the base, divided into 

 5-9 lobes, usually 7, the sinuses wide and rounded at the base, the 

 lobes measured along the midrib from the tip to the base of the 

 sinuses more than twice as long as the undivided part of the leaf, 

 the terminal lobe 3-toothed, the middle lobes the largest, frequently 

 with two small lobes, the midrib of the two basal lobes usually 

 curved backward, the midrib of the remaining lateral lobes ascend- 

 ing, leaves red and hairy when they expand, becoming at maturity 

 a bright green and smooth above, paler and smooth beneath or with 

 a few hairs on the veins and in the axils; petioles 4-6 cm. {l}/2-2]/2 

 inches) long; acorns sessile or nearly so, solitary or in pairs; nut 

 oval or oblong-ovoid, 1.5-2 cm. (^ inch) long, enclosed for J^-2/3 

 its length, covered with a coat of brown hairs to the top of the cup, 

 usually glabrous above the cup; cup deep, stout, top-shaped, smooth 

 within, the green cup presenting a glossy appearance; scales acute, 

 closely appressed when green, somewhat spreading at the top of 

 the cup on drying, their tips covered with hairs which give the top 

 of the cup a hoary appearance, the lower scales somewhat thick- 

 ened at their bases; kernel white within, less bitter than that of the 

 black oak. 



Distribution. Maine to Minnesota and southward to North Caro- 

 lina and Missouri. Found throughout Indiana, usually in dry, 

 sandy or gravelly soil in the northern and southwestern parts and 

 on the dry hills in the southern part. In the northwestern counties 

 bordering Lake Michigan it is locally somewhat frequent. In 

 the northeastern and eastern-central parts it is very rare, or does 

 not occur at all. It is locally frequent in the western-central coun- 

 ties, becoming frequent or common in the southwestern counties. 

 In the whole of the southeastern part it is more or less frequent on 

 the hills associated with the black and white oaks and black hick- 

 ory. In all of its range it is generally associated with the black 

 oak from which it is not usually separated. It is commonly classed 

 as a black or red oak, which in general appearance, especially the 

 bark, it resembles. It may be separated from the black oak by its 

 somewhat rougher outer bark and its red inner bark, by its shiny 

 cup, closer appressed scales and by the white kernel of the nut. It 



