62 MISC. PUBLICATION 4 7 7, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Q. castanea sublobata A. DC. in DC. Prodr. 16 2 : 72. 1864. 

 Q. tristis f. sublobata Trel., Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. 20: 171. pi. 



343. 1924. 

 Q. tristis f. niederleini Trel., Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. 20: 171. 



pi. 343. 1924. 

 Q. tristis f. vulcani Trel., Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. 20: 172. pi. 



342. 1924. 

 Q. tristis f. mixcoensis Trel., Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. 20: 172. 



1924 (not illustrated). 

 Q. scherzeri Trel., Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. 20: 172. pi. 343. 1924. 

 Q. consociata Trel., Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. 20: 172. pi. 345. 1924. 



Medium-sized or large tree. Twigs 1 to usually 2 or 2.5 mm. thick, 

 lluted, brown or reddish brown with scarcely evident or rarely prom- 

 inent lenticels, from sparsely stellate-tomentose soon glabrate or some- 

 times rather persistently pubescent. Buds about 4 mm. long, ovoid to 

 conic, acute, from pubescent nearly glabrate, light or dark brown; the 

 ligulate stipules early caducous, about 5 mm. long, dorsally pubescent. 

 Leaves subevergreen, persisting until the appearance of new growth 

 or often not, thin but very hard and coriaceous, about 3 to usually 6 or 

 often 12 cm. long, 1 to usually 2.5 or even 5 cm. broad, character- 

 istically oblong or very narrowly obovate-elliptic, almost always 

 broadest above the middle, acute to broadly rounded and usually 

 apiculate or aristate-tipped at apex, subcuneate to rounded or usually 

 cordate at the base, subentire to characteristically low-aristate- 

 toothed or coarsely toothed with aristate tips, especially toward the 

 apex, margins cartilaginous-revolute, minutely crisped, upper surface 

 glabrate or somewhat pubescent about the base of the midrib, some- 

 what shiny, prominently impressed-veiny, lower surface from stellate- 

 tomentose glabrate or rather floccose along the midrib and principal 

 veins, dull or opaque, prominently raised-reticulate-veiny, the surface 

 prominently bullate-granular or in young foliage low-buflate; veins 10 

 or 12 on each side, branching and obviously anastomosing near the 

 margin, with the reticulum rather evidently impressed above and 

 quite prominent beneath, the tertiaries rather strikingly regular and 

 ladderlike; petioles 2 to 5 or even 15 mm. long (the shortest on juvenile 

 forms with coarsely toothed leaves), glabrate. Staminate catkins 5 

 or 6 cm. long, loosely flowered, the rachis short-stellate-pubescent, the 

 anthers well exserted. Pistillate catkins very short-pedunculate, 1- 

 or 2-flowered. Fruit annual, subsessile or the peduncle 5 mm. long, 

 solitary or paired; cups 10 to 15 mm. broad, shallowly goblet-shaped 

 or cup-shaped, the scales ovate to triangular, the apices rounded, very 

 closely appressed, canescent or eventually nearly glabrate and glossy, 

 light brown; acorns 12 to 15 mm. long, 10 to 12 mm. broad, ovate- 

 rounded, very obtuse, from minutely sericeous-pubescent glabrate, 

 about one-third included or covered at the base only. (See pis. 85 

 to 88.) 



Range: Mountains of Guatemala (where it is very common), 

 Chiapas, and El Salvador (600 to 2,800 in.); type from Guatemala 

 (Warscewicz 12 and 14) without further data. 



Quercus tristis is adequately distinguished from all other annual- 

 fruited species of Erythrobalanus in Central America by its small im- 

 pressed-veiny leaves which are bullate-granular beneath at maturity. 



As in the case of the other polymorphic species with lengthy syn- 



