Part 29

=Quercus Muhlenbergii, Engelm.=

Quercus acuminata, Sarg.

CHESTNUT OAK.

=Habitat and Range.=--Dry hillsides, limestone ridges, rich bottoms.

Ontario.

Vermont,--Gardner's island, Lake Champlain; Ferrisburg (Pringle); Connecticut,--frequent (J. N. Bishop, 1895); on the limestone formation in the neighborhood of Kent (Litchfield county, C. K. Averill); often confounded by collectors with Q. Prinus; probably there are other stations. Not authoritatively reported from the other New England states.

South to Delaware and District of Columbia, along the mountains to northern Alabama; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian territory, and Texas.

=Habit.=--A medium-sized tree, 30-40 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 1-2 feet, attaining much greater dimensions in the basins of the Ohio, Mississippi, and their tributaries; trunk in old trees enlarged at the base, erect, branches rather short for the genus, forming a narrow oblong or roundish head.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk and large branches grayish or pale ash-colored, comparatively thin, flaky; branchlets grayish-brown; season's shoots in early summer purplish-green with pale dots.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds ovate, acute to obtuse, brownish. Leaves simple, alternate; in the typical form as recognized by Muhlenburg, 3-6 inches long, 1-1/2-2 inches wide, glossy dark green above, pale and minutely downy beneath; outline lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, with rather equal, coarse, sharp, and often inflexed teeth; apex acuminate; base wedge-shaped or acute; stipules soon falling. There is also a form of the species in which the leaves are much larger, 5-7 inches in length and 3-5 inches in width, broadly ovate or obovate, with rounded teeth; distinguishable from Q. Prinus only by the bark and fruit.

=Inflorescence.=--May. Appearing with the leaves; sterile catkins 2-4 inches long; calyx yellow, hairy, segments 5-8, ciliate; stamens 5-8, anthers yellow: pistillate flowers sessile or on short spikes; stigma red.

=Fruit.=--Maturing the first season, sessile or short-peduncled: cup covering about half the nut, thin, shallow, with small, rarely much thickened scales: acorn ovoid or globose, about 3/4 inch long.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in New England; grows in all good dry or moist soils, in open or partly shaded situations; maintains a nearly uniform rate of growth till maturity, and is not seriously affected by insects. It forms a fine individual tree and is useful in forest plantations. Propagated from seed.

1. Winter buds. 2. Flowering branch. 3. Sterile flower. 4. Fertile flowers. 5. Fruiting branch.

=Quercus prinoides, Willd.=

SCRUB WHITE OAK. SCRUB CHESTNUT OAK.

More or less common throughout the states east of the Mississippi; westward apparently grading into Q. Muhlenbergii, within the limits of New England mostly a low shrub, rarely assuming a tree-like habit. The leaves vary from rather narrow-elliptical to broadly obovate, are rather regularly and coarsely toothed, bright green and often lustrous on the upper surface.

=Quercus rubra, L.=

RED OAK.

=Habitat and Range.=--Growing impartially in a great variety of soils, but not on wet lands.

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to divide west of Lake Superior.

Maine,--common, at least south of the central portions; New Hampshire,--extending into Coos county, far north of the White mountains; Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut,--common; probably in most parts of New England the most common of the genus; found higher up the slopes of mountains than the white oak.

South to Tennessee, Virginia, and along mountain ranges to Georgia; reported from Florida; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas.

=Habit.=--The largest of the New England oaks, 50-85 feet high, with a diameter of 2-6 feet above the swell of the roots; occasionally attaining greater dimensions; trunk usually continuous to the top of the tree, often heavily buttressed; point of branching higher than in the white oak; branches large, less contorted, and rising at a sharper angle, the lower sometimes horizontal; branchlets rather slender; head extremely variable, in old trees with ample space for growth, open, well-proportioned, and imposing; sometimes oblong in outline, wider near the top, and sometimes symmetrically rounded, not so broad, however, as the head of the white oak; conspicuous in summer by its bright green, abundant foliage, which turns to dull purplish-red in autumn.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk and lower parts of branches in old trees dark gray, firmly, coarsely, and rather regularly ridged, smooth elsewhere; in young trees greenish mottled gray, smooth throughout; season's shoots at first green, taking a reddish tinge in autumn, marked with pale, scattered dots.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds ovate, conical, sharp-pointed. Leaves simple, alternate, 4-8 inches long, 3-5 inches broad, bright green above, paler beneath, dull brown in autumn; outline oval or obovate, sometimes scarcely distinguishable by the character of its lobing from Q. tinctoria; in the typical form, lobes broadly triangular or oblong, with parallel sides bristle-pointed; leafstalks short; stipules linear, soon falling.

=Inflorescence.=--Earliest of the oaks, appearing in late April or early May, when the leaves are half-grown; sterile catkins 3-5 inches long; calyx mostly 4-lobed; lobes rounded; stamens mostly 4; anthers yellow: pistillate flowers short-stemmed; calyx lobes mostly 3 or 4; stigmas long, spreading.

=Fruit.=--Maturing in the second year, single or in pairs, sessile or short-stalked: cup sometimes turbinate, usually saucer-shaped with a flat or rounded base, often contracted at the opening and surmounted by a kind of border; scales closely imbricated, reddish-brown, more or less downy, somewhat glossy, triangular-acute to obtuse, pubescent: acorn nearly cylindrical or ovoid, tapering to a broad, rounded top.