48 



BILTMORE BOTANICAL STUDIES 



midrib and prominent veins, soon becoming glabrous and lustrous 

 above, coriaceous or slightly thinner in texture, fading in autumn 

 with tones of yellow and brown : stipules linear, 3-5 mm long, 

 pubescent, caducous : staminate flowers borne in aments 5-8 cm 

 long from terminal and lateral buds of the previous season's 

 growth, the perianth mostly but irregularly 5-lobed, pubescent: 

 stamens normally 5, both the anthers and filaments pubescent : 

 pistillate flowers from the axils of leaves of the growth of the 

 season, either solitary, in pairs or in clusters of three, sessile or 

 short-pedunculate, clothed with pale hairs, the stigmas purplish- 

 red : acorns sessile or short pedunculate, the brown nut oval or 

 obovoid, about i2 mm high, g-io mm wide, obtuse, clothed with pale 

 tomentum at the apex and with longitudinal narrow dark-colored 

 stripes : cup turbinate or cup-shaped, enclosing less than one-half 

 of the nut, pubescent inside, the outer surface more densely so and 

 displaying the acute or acutish tips of the closely imbricated 

 scales. Bark of the older stems gray, usually with tinges of 

 brown and black, fissured and broken on the surface into ap- 

 pressed irregular scales ; of the branches dark gray or much 

 blackened, marked by numerous small, pale lenticels, the growth 

 of the season at first densely clothed with pale yellowish-brown 

 tomentum, usually becoming glabrous during the second year. 



Evidently very closely related to Querciis minor (Marsh) Sarg. , 3T and, were 

 it not for the fact that the Post Oak is distributed throughout the same region, 

 developing the characteristic form and ordinary proportions and seemingly with- 

 out any jntergradations between the two, the species here proposed would prob- 

 ably have been regarded merely in the light of varietal rank. Quercus boyntoni 

 is frequently loaded with fruit when only i m tall and presents an unique and strik- 

 ing appearance both on account of its small size and peculiar leaves. It is 

 readily distinguished from the Post Oak, growing in the same region, by the 

 small leaves which are lobed much above the middle of the blades and by their 

 long, cuneate bases, and by evidences of maturity in individuals of diminutive 

 size. Quercus rnargaretta Ashe, 3S a species from eastern North Carolina, dif- 

 fers from the form described above in the more lobed leaves with shorter bases 

 and the more slender and glabrous or nearly glabrous shoots. 



The original specimens were collected by Mr. C. L. Boynton of the Biltmore 

 Herbarium, for whom the species is named, in April and October, 1900. 



C. D. Beadle. 



Biltmore Herbarium, 

 Biltmore, N. C. 



s 7 Gard. & Forest, t, : 471, 1889. 



3* Joum. Elisha Mitchell Soc, 94, 1895. 



