C 39 ] 
WATER OAK. 
duERCus AQUATicA. Q. folUs ohovalî-cuneatîs, basi acutis, summitate subin- 
tegris, variève trilobis, glabris ; cupulâ modice crateratâ ; glande subglobosâ. 
This species first attracted my attention in the forests near Richmond 
in Virginia ; it becomes more common in proceeding southward, and 
abounds in the lower parts of the Carolinas and Georgia, and in East 
Florida. Under the name of Water Oak it is sometimes confounded with 
the Willow Oak, by which it is always accompanied in the ponds and 
narrow swamps enclosed in the pine-barrens. It is inferior in size to the 
Willow Oak, and rarely exceeds 40 or 45 feet in height, and 12 or 18 
inches in diameter. On full-grown trees the leaves are smooth, shining, 
and pyriform — or broad and rounded at the summit and terminated 
in an acute angle at the base. In the severe climate of Virginia, they fall 
with the first frost, but on the sea-shore of the Carolinas, Georgia and 
Florida, they persist during two or three years. There is no Oak in the 
United States of which the foliage is so variable and so different from that 
of the tree on the young stocks, and on the sprouts from an old trunk or 
from the base of a limb that has been lopped : the leaves are commonly 
oval and deeply and irregularly toothed. 
The acorns, which are contained in shallow, slightly scaly cups, are 
brown, small, and extremely bitter ; the largest tree rarely yields more 
than five or six quarts. Like those of the Willow Oak, when kept cool 
they preserve their fecundity for several months. 
The bark upon the oldest trunks is smooth and very slightly furrowed * 
it is little used in tanning, either because it is inferior to that of the Spanish 
Oak, or because the tree is less abundant. 
The wood is very tough, but less durable and less esteemed by carpen- 
ters and wheel-wrights than that of the White Oak and Chesnut White 
Oak. 
As this species is destitute of interest, it will probably become extinct, 
like many others which are rapidly diminishing. In France, it would flour- 
ish only in the southern departments. 
PLATE XIX. 
•B. bi anch with leaves and J^ruit oj^ the natural size. 
[See NuttalPs Supplement, Vol. 1, p. 23.] 
