FAGACEAE 
Hill’s Oak. Northern Pin Oak. Black Oak 
Quercus ellipsoidalis E. J. Hill 
HABIT.—A tree 50-60 feet high, with a short trunk 2-3 
feet in diameter; forming a rather narrow, oblong crown of up- 
right and horizontal branches. Many small, drooping branches 
are sent out near the ground, which eventually die; and it is to 
the stubs or pins which persist about the trunk that the appela- 
tion Pin Oak is due. 
LEAVES.—Alternate, simple, 3-7 inches long and about as 
broad; oval to nearly orbicular; narrowly 5-7-lobed_ by deep, 
wide, rounded sinuses, the lobes few-toothed, bristle-tipped; 
thin and firm; lustrous, bright green above, paler beneath, both 
sides glabrous except for the tufts of hairs in the axils of the 
veins beneath; petioles slender, glabrous. 
FLOWERS.—May, with the leaves; monoecious; the stam- 
inate in puberulous catkins 2-3 inches long; the pistillate red, 
tomentose, borne on stout, tomentose, 1-3-flowered peduncles; 
calyx 2-5-lobed or -parted, glabrous except at the apex, which 
is fringed with long, twisted hairs; corolla 0; stamens 2-5, with 
short filaments; stigmas 3, recurved, dark red. 
FRUIT.—Autumn of second season; short-stalked or nearly 
sessile acorns; cup top-shaped, with scales thin, puberulous, in- 
closing one-third to one-half of the nut; nut ellipsoid, 4-34 inch 
long, light brown, puberulous; kernel yellow, bitter. 
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal bud %-% inch long, ovoid, 
rather obtuse, slightly angular, lustrous, red-brown. 
BARK.—Twigs bright red-brown, covered with matted, 
pale hairs, becoming glabrous, dark gray or brown; thin, dull 
gray to dark brown, rather smooth or closely ribbed on the 
trunk; inner bark yellow. 
WOOD.—Heavy, hard, strong, coarse-grained, red-brown, 
with thin, paler sapwood. 
DISTRIBUTION.—South-western part of the Lower Pen- 
insula, but limits not definitely known. 
HABITAT.—Well-drained uplands, especially on clays; 
occasionally on the borders of ponds and in low woods. 
NOTES.—A new and comparatively little known species. 
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