Part 30

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows in all well-drained soils, but prefers a rich, moist loam; more readily obtainable than most of our oaks; in common with other trees of the genus, nursery trees must be transplanted frequently to be moved with safety; grows rapidly and is fairly free from disfiguring insects; the oak-pruner occasionally lops off its twigs. When once established, it grows as rapidly as the sugar maple, and is worthy of much more extended use in street and landscape plantations. Propagated from the seed.

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

=Quercus coccinea, Wang.=

SCARLET OAK.

=Habitat and Range.=--Most common in dry soil.

Ontario.

Maine,--valley of the Androscoggin, southward; New Hampshire and Vermont,--not authoritatively reported by recent observers; Massachusetts,--more common in the eastern than western sections, sometimes covering considerable areas; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--common.

South to the middle states and along the mountains to North Carolina and Tennessee; reported from Florida; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, and Missouri.

=Habit.=--A medium-sized tree, 30-50 feet high and 1-3 feet in trunk diameter; attaining greater dimensions southward; trunk straight and tapering, branches regular, long, comparatively slender, not contorted, the lower nearly horizontal, often declined at the ends; branchlets slender; head open, narrow-oblong or rounded, graceful; foliage deeply cut, shining green in summer and flaming scarlet in autumn; the most brilliant and most elegant of the New England oaks.

=Bark.=--Trunk in old trees dark gray, roughly and firmly ridged; inner bark red; young trees and branches smoothish, often marked with dull red seams and more or less mottled with gray.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, reddish-brown, ovate to oval, acutish, partially hidden by enlarged base of petiole. Leaves simple, alternate, extremely variable, more commonly 3-6 inches long, two-thirds as wide, bright green and shining above, paler beneath, smooth on both sides but often with a tufted pubescence on the axils beneath, turning scarlet in autumn, deeply lobed, the rounded sinuses sometimes reaching nearly to the midrib; lobes 5-9, rather slender and set at varying angles, sparingly toothed and bristly tipped; apex acute; base truncate to acute; leafstalk 1-1-1/2 inches long, slender, swollen at base.

=Inflorescence.=--Early in May. Appearing when the leaves are half grown; sterile catkins 2-4 inches long; calyx most commonly 4-parted; pubescent; stamens commonly 4, exserted; anthers yellow, glabrous: pistillate flowers red; stigmas long, spreading, reflexed.

=Fruit.=--Maturing in the autumn of the second year, single or in twos or threes, sessile or on rather short footstalks: cup top-shaped or cup-shaped, about half the length of the acorn, occasionally nearly enclosing it, smooth, more or less polished, thin-edged; scales closely appressed, firm, elongated, triangular, sides sometimes rounded, homogeneous in the same plant: acorn 1/2-3/4 inch long, variable in shape, oftenest oval to oblong: kernel white within; less bitter than kernel of the black oak.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows in any light, well-drained soil, but prefers a fertile loam. Occasionally offered by nurserymen, but as it is disposed to make unsymmetrical young trees it is not grown in quantity, and it is not desirable for streets. Its rapid growth, hardiness, beauty of summer foliage, and its brilliant colors in autumn make it desirable in ornamental plantations. Propagated from the seed.

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

=Quercus velutina, Lam.=

Quercus tinctoria, Bartram. Quercus coccinea, var. tinctoria, Gray.

BLACK OAK. YELLOW OAK.

=Habitat and Range.=--Poor soils; dry or gravelly uplands; rocky ridges.

Southern and western Ontario.

Maine,--York county; New Hampshire,--valley of the lower Merrimac and eastward, absent on the highlands, reappearing within three or four miles of the Connecticut, ceasing at North Charlestown; Vermont,--western and southeastern sections; Massachusetts,--abundant eastward; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--frequent.

South to the Gulf states; west to Minnesota, Kansas, Indian territory, and Texas.

=Habit.=--One of our largest oaks, 50-75 feet high and 2-4 feet in diameter, exceptionally much larger, attaining its maximum in the Ohio and Mississippi basins; resembling Q. coccinea in the general disposition of its mostly stouter branches; head wide-spreading, rounded; trunk short; foliage deep shining green, turning yellowish or reddish brown in autumn.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk dark gray or blackish, often lighter near the seashore, thick, usually rough near the ground even in young trees, in old trees deeply furrowed, separating into narrow, thick, and firmly adherent block-like strips; inner bark thick, yellow, and bitter; branches and branchlets a nearly uniform, mottled gray; season's shoots scurfy-pubescent.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds 1/8-1/4 inch long, bluntish to pointed, conspicuously clustered at ends of branches. Leaves simple, alternate, of two forms so distinct as to suggest different species, a (Plate XLV, 8) varying towards b (Plate XLV, 6), and b often scarcely distinguishable from the leaf of the scarlet oak; in both forms outline obovate to oval, lobes usually 7, densely woolly when opening, more or less pubescent or scurfy till midsummer or later, dark shining green above, lighter beneath, becoming brown or dull red in autumn.

Form a, sinuses shallow, lobes broad, rounded, mucronate.

Form b, sinuses deep, extending halfway to the midrib or farther, oblong or triangular, bristle-tipped.

=Inflorescence.=--Early in May. Appearing when the leaves are half grown; sterile catkins 2-5 inches long, with slender, pubescent threads; calyx usually 3-4-lobed; lobes ovate, acute to rounded, hairy-pubescent; stamens 3-7, commonly 4-5; anthers yellow: pistillate flowers reddish, pubescent, at first nearly sessile; stigmas 3, red, divergent, reflexed.