Southern Oak 



325 



Fig. 280. — Lacey's Oak. 



• 43. LACEY'S OAK — Quercus Laceyi SmaU 



A small tree with a maximum height of 6 meters but more often a shrub, of 

 limestone hills in south central Texas, where it is called Bastard oak and Mountain 

 oak. 



The bark is brown, irregularly and' deeply grooved. The twigs are slender, 

 somewhat hairy, the buds 

 small, blunt, their scales 

 thick, red and hairy-mar- 

 gined. The abundant leaves 

 are 4 to 8 cm. long, oblong, 

 with 3 to 5 shallow lobes, or 

 oblong-obovate and more 

 prominently 3-lobed near 

 the rounded or notched 

 apex; the base is narrow, 

 abruptly truncate or heart- 

 shaped; they are thick, al- 

 most leathery, olive-green 

 with a waxy appearauce 

 above, grayish and some- 

 what minutely scurfy with prominent yellowish venation beneath, persisting almost 

 until the new leaves form. The leaf-stalk is short, stout, grooved and hairy. The 

 fruit, ripening at the end of the first season, is sessile or nearly so ; nut oblong to 

 oblong-ovoid, 1.5 to 2 cm. long, often depressed at the apex, its shell thin, brown 



and smooth inside; cup shallow, sau- 

 cer-shaped, I2 to 17 mm. across, 

 light brown inside, rather thick, em- 

 bracing only the base of nut, covered 

 with stout, coarse, corky, brownish- 

 downy scales. 



44- SOUTHERN OAK 

 Quercus austrina Small 



A rough barked tree of river bor- 

 ders in Georgia and Alabama, reach- 

 ing a height of 15 meters, with a trunk 

 diameter of i m. It is also called 

 Pin oak and Bastard oak. 



The twigs are smooth, reddish 

 and glaucous. The winter buds are 

 about 2 mm. long, dark brown, with hairy pointed scales. The leaves are wedge- 



FiG. 281. — Southern Oak. 



