Handbook of Teees of the I^oethebn States and Canada. Ifil 



This interesting and statelj' oak, when grow- 

 ing among other trees in favorable localities, 

 attains a height of 100 ft. with straight col- 

 umnar trunk .'{-4 ft. in diameter, clothed in 

 quite smooth bark, but fissured on old trunks 

 into flat firm ridges. It is distinctl}^ a tree 

 of the low-lands of the Gulf and Atlantic coast 

 regions reaching its northernmost point of dis- 

 tribution in the Dismal Swamp of eastern Vir- 

 ginia. There it is common along the border of 

 the great swamp in company with the Over-cup 

 Oak, Red, Loblolly and Sweet Bays, Carolina 

 Ash, Sourwood, Water, Tvipelo and Sweet Gums, 

 White Cedar, etc. 



It is a beautiful tree with its laurel-like 

 leaves and sturdy trunks and is deservedly 

 popular as a shade tree in the southern states, 

 where it is commonly planted and is usually 

 tailed the TVater Oak. The wood heretofore 

 has been used mainly for fuel and charcoal, 

 though suitable for lumber for interior finish- 

 ing, etc. A cubic foot when absolutely dry 

 weighs 47.82 Ibs.i 



Leaves narrow-oblong to oblon^-obovate. some- 

 times falcate, 2-4 in. Ions, cuneate at base, 

 rounded or acute at apex, entire or on vigorous 

 branches unequally lobed, at maturity lustrous 

 tjarlc green aliove, paler beneath ; petioles short 

 and stout. Plowem: staminate in reddish hairy 

 aments 2-.S in. long ; pistillate with short stout 

 glabrous peduncles. Fruit sessile or nearly so. 

 usually solitary with short ovoid to hemispherical 

 nut. puherulous at apex about one fourth inclosed 

 in a thin flat saucer-shaped cup with thin pale- 

 pubescent closely imbricated scales. 



1. A. W., XII, 295. 



