302 OAK FAMII-T. 



4 1. Sterile flowers with a distinct i - 7-bbed calyx and 3-20 sletider stamens :ferlilt 



flowers 1-iin a cup or Imr-like involucre. 

 » Sterile fl^mers clustered in slender catkins : their bracts inconspicuOTis or deciduous. 



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



which becomes a scaly cup. Stigma 3-lobed. Nut (acorn) terete, with a firm 

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

 sons, p. 130, fig. 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- 

 closed 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. 



* * Stei^e flowers in small heads on drooping peduncles. • 



3. FA6US. Calyx of sterile flowers bell-shaped, 5 -7-cleft, containing 8 - 16 long 



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

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

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

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

 prickly rigid involucre. Cotyledons thick,, somewhat crumpled together, but 

 rising and expaiiding in germination. (Lessons, p. 11, flg. 13-15.) 



§ 2. Sterile flowers consisting of a few short stamens partly adhering io the bract, 



and destititte of any pi^oper .calyx ; the anthers V-celled: fertile flowers in 



pairs under each bract of a head, spike, or short catkin, each with one or itoo 



■ bractleis,forming afoliaceous or sac-like involucre to Ike nut Sterile catkins 



rather dense. 



4. COKYLUS. 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 laj-ge, bony, 

 wholly or partly enclosed in a leaf-like or tubular and cut-lobed at toothed 

 involucre. , . 



6. OSTEYA. Scales of the sterile catkin simple. Fertile flower? in a sort of 

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

 slender stigmas and enclosed in a tubular bractlet, which becoir.es a bladdery 

 gi'eenish- white oblong bag, in the bottom of which is the little nut: these 

 together foi-m a sort of hop-like fruit. 



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

 loose catkin ; each with a pair of separate 3'lobed bractlets, which become 

 leaf-like, one each side of thei smaU nerved nut. 



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

 acorns ripe in autumn. All but one of the following species m-e natives 

 of the country. 



§ 1 . Annual-fruited Oaks, the acoj-ns maturing the autumn of the first year, there- 

 fore on the ivood vf the season, usually 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 teeth of the leaves. 

 * White Oaks, with lyratety or sinuatdy pinnatifid and deciduous leaves. 

 •t- European tree, more or less planted eastward. 

 Q. K6bur, T5nR0PEAN or Engltss Oak. Belongs to the same section 

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

 but hardly pinnatifid ; acorn oblong, over 1' long, — one or a few in a cluster 

 which is nearly sessile in the axils in var. sessilifl6ka, — raised on a slender 

 peduncle in var. pedunculAta. 



-I- H- Native species : leaves pale or whitish beneath. 

 Q. dlba, White Oak. Rich soil ; large tree with whitish bark ; leaves 

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

 obtuse and mostly ciitii-e oblique Ipbes ; the shallow rough cup very much 

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



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

 barren soil, commonest S., with very durable wood ; thickish leaves grayish 



