1248 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Vermont, and Nova Scotia, where it was known as the grey oak. Britten and 

 Small, who consider it to be a distinct species, extend the distribution to New York 

 and Pennsylvania, and as far south as the mountains of North Carolina, and describe 

 the leaves as like those of Q. rubra, seven- to thirteen-lobed to the middle or somewhat 

 beyond. Sargent ^ refers to Q. ambigua as a form of Q. rubra, having fewer lobes 

 to the leaves, and smaller fruits with turbinate cups ; but states that these extreme 

 forms are so intermixed and inconstant that it does not seem practicable to consider 

 them even varieties. All this evidence goes to prove that this name covers a series 

 of hybrids ^ between Q. coccinea and Q. rubra. 



At Arley Castle, trees of typical Q. rubra, which freely bear fruit with large 

 flat shallow saucer-like cupules, invariably have leaves turning dull reddish brown and 

 falling off early in autumn. Other trees, with smaller acorn-cups, which though 

 shallow are not quite flat at the base, but prolonged into a short scaly stalk, are 

 deciduous late in the season, and their leaves turn a brilliant scarlet before falling. 

 Such trees correspond to the description given of Q. ambigua, and are in all 

 probability hybrids of Q. rubra and Q. coccinea. 



Q. coccinea bears fruit only rarely in England ; and we have seen no fruiting 

 specimens of Waterer's Q. coccinea splendens, which turns a brilliant crimson in 

 autumn ; but this tree is probably true Q. coccinea. 



In the absence of fruit, Q. coccinea is best distinguished by the buds, white- 

 pubescent in their upper half; and by the leaves, shining beneath, more deeply 

 lobed than in Q. rubra, falling late in the season, after turning a brilliant scarlet or 

 crimson. Trees with the foliage of Q. rubra, dull beneath, but turning scarlet in 

 autumn, and late in falling, may be assigned to Q. ambigua. 



The scarlet oak is the most ornamental species in North America, on account 

 of its deeply cut foliage, shining green in summer and brilliant scarlet in autumn. 

 The leaves are retained late in the autumn, after most of the other oaks have 

 withered and fallen.^ It attains its northern limit in southern Ontario, and is widely 

 distributed through the northern parts of the United States from south-eastern 

 Nebraska eastward through central Minnesota and Michigan, southern New York, Ver- 

 mont, and southern New Hampshire to the valley of the Androscoggin river in Maine. 

 It is very abundant on the coast region from Massachusetts to New Jersey, where 

 it is generally found on light dry usually sandy soil ; but is less common in the interior, 

 where it grows on dry gravelly uplands, and on the prairies of the west. It extends 

 to northern Illinois and the District of Columbia, and along the Alleghany Moun- 

 tains to North Carolina. It is occasionally planted in the north-eastern states in 

 towns, but is said to be undesirable for streets, as young trees are disposed to be 

 wide-spreading and unsymmetrical. Its timber is not distinguishable from that of 

 the red oak in commerce, and is identical with it in appearance and quality. 



(A. H.) 



1 Silva N. Amer. viii. 127, note. 



2 Baenitz, in AUg. bot. Zeitschr., 1903, p. 85, has, under the name Q. Beitderi, described similar hybrids growing at 

 Brcslau. 3 cf. Hough, Trees N. States atid Catiada, 147 (1907). 



