302 OAK FAMILY. 



§ 1. Sterile Jlowers with a distinct 4 - 7-lobed calyx and 3-20 slender stamens : fertile 



Jiowers \~i%n a cup or bur-like involucre. 

 * Sterile Jiowers clustered in slender catkins : their bracts inconspicuous w deciduous, 



1. QUERCUS. Stamens 3-12. Fertile flower only one in the bud-like involucre, 

 ' whicli becomes a scaly cup. Stigma 3-lobecl. Nut (acorn) terete, with a firm 



shell, from which the thick cotyledons do not emerge in germination. (Les- 

 sons, p. 130, tig. 299; p. 13, fig. 21, 22.) 



2. CASTANEA. Stamens 8-20. Fertile flowers few (commonly 3) in each in- 



volucre, one or more ripening; stigmas mostly 6 or 7, bristle-shaped. Nuts 

 coriaceous, ovoid, when more than one flattened on one or both sides, en- 

 plosed in the hard and thick "very prickly bur-like at length 4-valved invo- 

 lucre. Cotyledons somewhat folded together and cohering, remaining under 

 ground in germination. _ ^ 



* * SteHle jiowers in small heads on drooping peduncles. 



3. F AGUS. Calyx of sterile flowers bell-shaped, 5 - 7-cleft, containing 8-16 long 



stamens. Fertile flowers 2 together on the summit of a scsdy-bracted pe- 

 duncle; the innermost scales uniting form the 4-lobed involucre: ovary 

 3-celled when young, crowned by 6 'awl-shaped calyx-teeth and a 3-cleft or 

 3 thread-like styles : in fruit a pair of sharply 3-sided nuts in the 4-cleft soft- 

 prickly rigid involucre. Cotyledons thick, somewhat ci-umpled together, but 

 rising and expanding in germination. (Lessons, p. 11, fig. 13-15.) 



§ 2. Stei'ile Jiowers consisiing of a fexo short stamens partly' adhering to the bract., 

 and destitute of any proper calyx; the anthers 1-celled: J'trtile Jiowers in 

 pairs under ecuih bract of a head^ spike, or short catkin, each with one or two 

 bractleis, forming afollaceous or sac-like involucre to the nut. Sterile catkins 

 rather dense. 



4. COEYLUS. Scales of the sterile catkin consisting of a bract to the inside of 



which 2 bractlets and several stamens adhere. Fertile flowers in a little 

 head, like a scaly bud: stigmas 2, long and red. Nut rather large, bony, 

 wholly or partly enclosed in a leaf-like or tubular and cut-lobec/ ol- toothed 

 involucre. 



5. OSTRYA. Scales of the sterile catkin simple. Fertile fiowen In a sort of 



slender catkin, its bracts deciduous, each flower an ovary tippyi with 2 long 

 slender stigmas Ad enclosed in a tubular bractlet, which beccir.fes a bladdery 

 greenish- white oblong bag, in the bottom of which is the little nut: these 

 together form a sort of hop-like fruit. 



6. CARPINUS. Sterile catkin as iff Ostrya. Fertile flowers in a sort of slender 



loose catkin ; each with a pair of separate 3-Iobed bractlets, which become 

 leaf-like, one each side of the small nerved nut. 



1. QUERCUS, OAK. (The classical Latin name.) Flowers in spring; 

 acorns ripe in autumn. All but one of the foIlowiDg species are natives 

 of the country. 



§ 1 . Annual-fruili'd Oaks, the acorns maturing the autumn of the frst >/ear, there- 

 fore on the wood of the season, usuculg in the axil of the leaves, out of 

 which they are often raised on a peduncle : kernel commonly sweet-tasted :■ 

 no bristles on the lobes or teith of the leaves. 



* White Oaks, with lyrately or sinuately pinnatifid and deciduous Iraves. 

 ■^ European tn-e, more or less planted eastward. 



Q. R6bur, EtrnopKAN or English Oak. Belongs to the same section 

 with our White Oak ; but leaves smaller, not glaucous beneath, sinuate-lobed, 

 but hardly pinnatifid ; acorn oblons;, over I' long, — one or a few in a cluster' 

 wliich is nearly sessile in the axils in var. sessilifl6ra, — raised on a slender 

 peduncle in var. peduncolAta. 



■t- 4- Native species ; leaves pale or whitish beneath. 



Q. dilba, White 0a(c. Rich soil : large tree with whitish bark; leaves 

 soon smooth, bright green above, whitish beneath, with 3-9 oblong or linear 

 obtuse and mostly entire oblique lobes ; the shallow rough cup very much 

 shorter than the ovoid-oblong (about 1' long) acorn ; seed edible. 



Q. obtusiloba, Post Oak, Rough or Box Whitk Oak. Small tree in 

 barren soil, commonest S., with very durable wood ; thicki.sh loaves grayish 



