Quercus 12,35 



QUERCUS NIGRA, Water Oak 



Quercus nigra, Linnaeus, Sp. PL 995 (1753); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. viii. 165, t. 428 (1895), and 



Trees N. Amer. 246 (1905); Britten,^ vajourn. Bot. xlvii. 349 (1909). 

 Quercus nigra aquatica, Lamarck, Encyc. i. 721 (1783). 

 Quercus uliginosa, Wangenheim, Nordam. Hoh. 80, t. 6, f. 18 (1787). 



Quercus aquatica, Walter, Fl. Car. 234 (1788); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1892 (1838). 

 Quercus hemisphcerica, Willdenow, Sp. PI. iv. 443 (1805). 



A tree, attaining in America 80 ft. in height and 10 ft. in girth. Bark about 

 \ in. thick, covered with closely appressed scales. Young branchlets slender, 

 glabrous. Leaves (Plate 334, Fig. 9) deciduous, late in the season, very variable in 

 shape and size ; on old trees obovate or oval, cuneate at the base, and enlarged at 

 the broad, rounded, entire or three-lobed apex, about 3 in. long and 2 in. broad at 

 the widest part ; on vigorous and sterile branches on young trees longer and 

 narrower, about 4 in. long by i in. broad, acute at the apex, cuneate at the base, 

 with three to seven short triangular oblique bristle-pointed lobes ; thin, membranous, 

 glabrous, except for axil-tufts beneath ; petiole short, ^ to :^ in. long. 



Fruit solitary, short-stalked, ripening in the second year ; acorn broad and flat 

 at the base, rounded at the pubescent apex, enclosed for one-fourth its length in a 

 thin saucer-shaped cupule,^ about \ in. wide, tomentose within, and covered with 

 ovate acute appressed pubescent scales. 



The Water Oak, as its name implies, grows naturally on moist alluvial ground, 

 and on the sandy borders of swamps and streams ; and ranges from southern 

 Delaware southward to Cape Malabar and the shores of Tampa Bay, Florida, 

 extending inland to the base of the southern Alleghany Mountains, and westward 

 through the Gulf states to the Colorado river, Texas, and the eastern part of Indian 

 Territory, ascending the Mississippi basin to Arkansas, south-eastern Missouri, 

 central Tennessee and Kentucky. On account of its rapid growth when young, 

 and the facility with which it can be transplanted, it is used extensively as a shade 

 tree in the cities and towns of the southern States. 



According to Loudon, it was cultivated in England in Fairchild's nursery as 

 early as 1723. Like many other interesting trees, it has scarcely been planted in 

 this country of late years, though it is worthy of a place in all collections on account 

 of the long persistence of the leaves, which remain fresh and green on the specimens 

 at Kew and Tortworth till January or February, or even later in some seasons. 

 Apparently this species does not produce fruit in England ; but we have received a 

 specimen with fully developed acorns from Mile Ivoy, Geneste, near Bordeaux. 



(A. H.) 



1 Britten, in the article quoted, explains how the name Q. nigra, L. , was erroneously transferred at an early date to 

 Q. marylandica. The proper usage of the names for these two oaks was restored by Sargent. 



2 Q. microcarya. Small, Flora S. East. States, 350 (1903), is a form with smaller acoms, surrounded by a cup-shaped 

 and not saucer-shaped cupule. This was found growing on granite rocks on the Little Stone Mountain in Georgia. 



