296 



The Oaks 



hairy midrib beneath, becoming orange-brown or yellow before falling in the 

 autumn. The leaf-stalk is slender and hairy, r to 5 cm. long. The flowers ap- 

 pear from March to May, as the leaves imfold. The staminate flowers are in 

 clustered slender woolly catkins 7.5 to 12.5 cm. long, their calyx hairy, the 4 or 

 5 lobes ovate, blunt; stamens exserted, 4 or 5; anthers oblong, notched, smooth, 

 and yellow. The pistillate flowers are on stout hairy stalks, their involucral scales 

 brown woolly, the calyx-lobes sharp-pointed; styles elongated, nearly upright, 

 dark red. The fruit, ripening in the autumn of the second season, is short-stalked ; 

 nut subglobose, i to 1.5 cm. long, yellowish brown; cup hemispheric or top- 

 shaped, 15 to 18 mm. across, reddish brown within, embracing about one fourth 

 of the nut, its scales thin, oblong, reddish and covered with pale hairs. 



The wood is hard and strong, coarse-grained and light red ; its specific gravity 

 is about 0.69. It is not very durable and checks badly on drying, and is spar- 

 ingly used for construction purposes but quite extensively for fuel. The astrin- 

 gent bark is sometimes used in tanning and, like the bark of most all oaks, is 

 sometimes used in domestic medicine. 



Of very distinct appearance, it is quite desirable as a shade tree for park plant- 

 ing, wherever it has proven hardy; it is considerably used in the streets and parks 

 of our southern States. 



A supposed hybrid with the Black oak, Q, vdutina Lamarck, is reported from 

 Tennessee and North CaroUna. 



13. ELLIOTT'S OAK — Quercus pagodaefolia (ElUott) Ashe 

 Quercus jalcata pagodajolia Elliott 



Fig. 248. — Elliott's Oak. 



A tree of swamp borders 

 and along streams from Long 

 Island to southern Illinois 

 and Missouri, southward to 

 northern Florida and Arkan- 

 sas, attaining a maximum 

 height of 32 meters, with a 

 trunk diameter of 1.5 m. 

 Also called Swamp Spanish 

 oak and Red oak. 



The branches are large, 

 stout and widely spreading 

 or ascending, forming a 

 large, spreading, roimd tree 

 in the open; in the forest the 

 branches are more slender 

 and form a narrow head, 

 supported by a tall massive 



