If, 1. THE BLACK OR YELLOW-BARKED OAK. 141 
seeds of the pitch pine, the red cedar, the larch, or some of the 
valuable oaks, were placed, at the right season, an inch or less 
beneath the surface of the soii,—they would spring up under 
its shade, and be protected by it from sun and wind, until they 
were large enough to need no further protection; after which it 
might be grubbed up, or left to die gradually in the shade. 
Sp. 8. T'xz Brack on YELLow-BarKeED Oak. Quercus tinctoria. 
Bartram. 
Leaf figured in Michaux; Sylva, Plate 24; fruit, Plate 25. One variety is 
figured in Abbot’s Insects of Georgia, I], Plate 56. By A. Michaux; His- 
toire des Chénes, Plates 24, 25; and poorly in Audubon’s Birds, Plate 82; 
the two most common forms are figured in Plates 7 and 8 of this volume. 
This oak is distinguished from all others, by the rich yellow 
or orange color of its inner bark, and the same color, less deep, 
in the fruit. It is, usually, also remarkable for the black color 
of the external bark on the lower part of the trunk. But this 
characteristic often fails in young trees; the two oaks which 
follow being often dark in almost an equal degree. 
The trunk, even in rather small trees, 1s excessively rough 
towards the base. In old trees, this extreme ruggedness extends 
throughout the trunk, and the bark is always remarkably free 
from the larger lichens. 
The recent branchlets are brownish, or bronze red, somewhat 
channelled, and usually downy, closely dotted with minute gray 
dots,—with brilliant black dots, when seen under a magnifier. 
The older branchlets are of a grayish or pearly green, dots not 
much enlarged, surface soon clouded with pearly, membrana- 
ceous lichens. The buds are large, ovate, or pyramidal, reddish 
brown, or grayish, and pointed. 
The staminate flowers are on a long pendulous thread, closely 
covered with down. Perianth downy, deeply divided into two 
to four fringed pieces; stamens four to six; anthers opening on 
the sides, to the base. 
The fertile flowers nearly sessile, one, two, or three together, 
in the axil ofa leaf; cup formed of several fleshy scales, the 
outer ones narrow and pointed, the inner, broader; styles three, 
