204 Eleventh Annual Report 



14. Quercus velutina Lamarck. Black Oak. Yellow Oak. 

 Plate 57. Bark on trunks deeply fissured, thick, not scaly, dark 

 brown to nearly black, rarely light brown, inner bark deep orange, 

 bark on young branchlets smooth and dark brown; winter buds 

 ovate, taper-pointed, hairy, scales blunt, rusty pubescent, about 8 

 mm. (1/3 inch) long; leaves obovate to oblong, very variable in 

 size and form, usually 12-18 cm. (5-7 inches) long, 5-9 lobed, 

 usually 7-lobed, truncate or wedge-shaped at the base, the lateral 

 lobes varying from ovate to obovate, the sinuses generally deep and 

 wide and rounded at the base, although the margins of some of the 

 obovate type are very shallow lobed, hairy when they first appear, 

 becoming at maturity thin and firm, smooth, glossy and a bright 

 green above, paler or a yellow green beneath, usually smooth, some- 

 times with hairs in the axils of the veins, or rarely the whole under 

 surface covered with hairs; the leaves on some individuals approach 

 the scarlet oak in shape, but on the whole are a little larger; peti- 

 oles 2-8 cm. (^-3 inches) long, usually smooth, sometimes hairy; 

 acorns sessile or nearly so, solitary or in pairs; nut ovoid, oblong, 

 or subglobose, 1.5-2 cm. (3^-^ inch) long, more or less covered 

 with hairs, especially near the summit and the part enclosed by 

 the cup, enclosed for about half its length in the cup-shaped cup; 

 cup rounded at the base, hairy within; scales light brown, rather 

 blunt pointed, hoary pubescent, loose above the middle, sometimes 

 appearing as a fringe. 



Distribution. Maine, Ontario and Minnesota south to Florida 

 and west to Texas. Found throughout Indiana in dry, sandy, and 

 sterile soil. In the northern counties on the gravelly hills it is fre- 

 quent or common; in some of the dry sandy areas and on the dune 

 region of Lake Michigan it is the principal species, and sometimes 

 forms almost pure stands. In the east central part of the State 

 it varies from very rare to somewhat frequent. In Wells County 

 a few trees are found in two localities only about 20 miles apart. 

 In the western and southern parts of the State it is frequent to 

 common on dry, sandy or gravelly soil and on the sterile hills. 

 While not so uniformly distributed throughout the State as the 

 white oak, yet in point of number it nearly equals it, or may even 

 exceed it. 



The published records of the distribution are as follows: Clark 

 (Baird and Taylor) and (Smith) ; Clay (Wilson) ; Delaware (Phin- 

 ney); Delaware, Jay, Randolph and Wayne (Phinney); Fountain 

 (Brown); Franklin (Raymond) and (Meyncke); Gibson (Schneck); 

 Hamilton (Wilson); Jefferson (Coulter); Knox (Ridgway) and 



