Part 34

Trees, with astringent properties, pubescence of fascicled hairs, deeply furrowed scaly bark, hard close-grained brittle wood, stout branchlets, and winter-buds covered by few erect or spreading foliaceous scales. Leaves convolute in the bud, petiolate, persistent, entire or dentate, with a stout midrib, primary veins running obliquely to the points of the teeth, or on entire leaves forked and united near the margins, and reticulate veinlets; stipules oblong-obovate to linear-lanceolate, those of the upper leaves persistent and surrounding the buds during the winter. Flowers in erect unisexual and in bisexual tomentose aments from the axils of leaves of the year, from the inner scales of the terminal bud or from separate buds in the axils of leaves of the previous year; staminate in 3-flowered clusters in the axils of ovate rounded bracts, the lateral flowers subtended by similar but smaller bracts, each flower composed of a 5-lobed tomentose calyx, with nearly triangular acute lobes, 10 stamens, with slender elongated filaments and small oblong or emarginate anthers, and an acute abortive hairy ovary; pistillate scattered at the base of the upper aments below the staminate flowers, solitary in the axils of acute bracts, furnished with minute lateral bractlets, and composed of a 6-lobed ovoid calyx, with rounded lobes, inclosed in the tomentose involucral scales, 6 stamens, with abortive anthers, an ovoid-oblong 3-celled ovary, 3 elongated spreading light green styles thickened and stigmatic at apex, and 2 anatropous ovules in each cell. Fruit an oval or ovoid nut maturing at the end of the second season, 1-seeded by abortion, surrounded at base by the accrescent woody cupular involucre of the flower, marked by a large pale circular basal scar, the thick shell tomentose on the inner surface. Seed red-brown, filling the cavity of the nut, bearing at apex the abortive ovules; cotyledons thick and fleshy, yellow and bitter.

Lithocarpus is intermediate between the Oaks and the Chestnuts, and, with the exception of one California species, is confined to southeastern Asia, where it is distributed with many species from southern Japan and southern China through the Malay Peninsula to the Indian Archipelago.

_Lithocarpus_ from λίθος and καρπός, in allusion to the character of the fruit.

1. Lithocarpus densiflora Rehd. Tan Bark Oak. Chestnut Oak.

_Quercus densiflora_ Hook. & Arn. _Pasania densiflora_ Örst.

Leaves oblong or oblong-obovate, rounded or acute or rarely cordate at base, acute or occasionally rounded at apex, or rarely lanceolate and acuminate (f. _lanceolata_ Rehdr.) repand-dentate, with acute callous teeth, or entire with thickened revolute margins, coated when they unfold with fulvous tomentum and glandular on the margins with dark caducous glands, at maturity pale green, lustrous and glabrous or covered with scattered pubescence on the upper surface, rusty-tomentose on the lower, ultimately becoming glabrous above and glabrate and bluish white below, 3′—5′ long, ¾′—3′ wide, with a midrib raised and rounded on the upper side, thin or thick primary veins and fine conspicuous reticulate veinlets; persistent until the end of their third or fourth year; petioles stout, rigid, tomentose, ½′—¾′ in length; stipules brown and scarious, hirsute on the outer surface. Flowers in early spring and frequently also irregularly during the autumn; aments stout-stemmed, 3′—4′ long; staminate flowers crowded, hoary-tomentose in the bud, their bracts tomentose. Fruit solitary or often in pairs, on a stout tomentose peduncle ½′—1′ in length; nut full and rounded at base, gradually narrowed and acute or rounded at apex, scurfy-pubescent when fully grown, becoming light yellow-brown, glabrous and lustrous at maturity, ¾′—1′ long, ½′—1′ thick, its cup shallow, tomentose with lustrous red-brown hairs on the inner surface, and covered by long linear rigid spreading or recurved light brown scales coated with fascicled hairs, frequently tipped, especially while young, with dark red glands and often tomentose near the base of the cup.

A tree, usually 70°—80° but sometimes 150° high, with a trunk 1°—4° in diameter, stout branches ascending in the forest and forming a narrow spire-like head, or in open positions spreading horizontally and forming a broad dense symmetrical round-topped crown, and branchlets coated at first with a thick fulvous tomentum of fascicled hairs often persistent until the second or third year, becoming dark reddish brown and frequently covered with a glaucous bloom; or sometimes reduced to a shrub, with slender stems only a few feet high (var. _montana_ Rehdr.). Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, ¼′—⅓′ long, often surrounded by the persistent stipules of the upper leaves, with tomentose loosely imbricated scales, those of the outer ranks linear-lanceolate, increasing in width toward the interior of the bud, those of the inner ranks ovate or obovate and rounded at apex. Bark ¾′—1½′ thick, deeply divided by narrow fissures into broad rounded ridges broken into nearly square plates covered by closely appressed light red-brown scales. Wood hard, strong, close-grained, brittle, reddish brown, with thick darker brown sapwood; largely used as fuel. The bark is exceedingly rich in tannin and is largely used for tanning leather.

Distribution. Valley of the Umpqua River, Oregon, southward through the coast ranges to the Santa Inez Mountains, California, and along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada up to elevations of 4000° above the sea to Mariposa County; very abundant in the humid coast region north of San Francisco Bay and on the Santa Cruz and Santa Lucia Mountains, and of its largest size in the Redwood forest of Napa and Mendocino Counties; southward and on the Sierras less abundant and of smaller size; the form _lanceolata_ in southern Oregon and in Del Norte and Mendocino Counties, California; the var. _montana_ at high altitudes on the Siskiyou Mountains, in the region of Mount Shasta and on the northern Sierra Nevada.

5. QUERCUS L. Oak.

Trees or shrubs, with astringent properties, pubescence of fascicled hairs, scaly or dark and furrowed bark, hard and close-grained or porous brittle wood, slender branchlets marked by pale lenticels and more or less prominently 5-angled. Winter-buds clustered at the ends of the branchlets, with numerous membranaceous chestnut-brown slightly accrescent caducous scales closely imbricated in 5 ranks, in falling marking the base of the branchlet with ring-like scars. Leaves 5-ranked, lobed, dentate or entire, often variable on the same branch, membranaceous or coriaceous, the primary veins prominent and extending to the margins or united within them and connected by more or less reticulate veinlets, deciduous in the autumn or persistent until spring or until their third or fourth year; petioles in falling leaving slightly elevated semiorbicular more or less obcordate leaf-scars broader than high, marked by the ends of numerous scattered fibro-vascular bundles; stipules obovate to lanceolate, scarious, caducous, or those of upper leaves occasionally persistent through the season. Flowers vernal with or after the unfolding of the leaves; staminate solitary in the axils of lanceolate acute caducous bracts, or without bracts, in graceful pendulous clustered aments, from separate or leaf-buds in the axils of leaves of the previous year, or from the axils of the inner scales of the terminal bud or from those of the leaves of the year; calyx campanulate, lobed or divided to the base into 4—7, usually 6, membranaceous lobes; stamens 4—6, rarely 2, or 10—12, inserted on the slightly thickened torus, with free filiform exserted filaments and ovate-oblong or subglobose glabrous or rarely hairy 2-celled usually yellow anthers; pistillate solitary, subtended by a caducous bract and 2 bractlets, in short or elongated few-flowered spikes from the axils of leaves of the year; calyx urn-shaped, with a short campanulate 6-lobed limb, the tube adnate to the incompletely 3 or rarely 4 or 5-celled ovary inclosed more or less completely by an accrescent involucre of imbricated scales, becoming the cup of the fruit; styles as many as the cells of the ovary, short or elongated, erect or incurved, dilated above, stigmatic on the inner face or at apex only, generally persistent on the fruit; ovules anatropous or semianatropous, 2 in each cell. Fruit a nut (_acorn_) maturing in one or in two years, ovoid, subglobose, or turbinate, short-pointed at apex, 1-seeded by abortion, marked at base by a large conspicuous circular scar, with a thick shell, glabrous or coated on the inner surface with pale tomentum, more or less surrounded or inclosed in the accrescent cupular involucre of the flower (_cup_), its scales thin or thickened, loosely or closely imbricated. Seed marked at base or at apex or rarely on the side by the abortive ovules; cotyledons thick and fleshy, usually plano-convex and entire.

Quercus inhabits the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere and high altitudes within the tropics, ranging in the New World southward to the mountains of Colombia and in the Old World to the Indian Archipelago. Two hundred and seventy-five species have been described; of the North American species fifty-four are large or small trees. Of exotic species, the European _Quercus Robur_ L., and _Quercus sessiliflora_ Salisb., have been frequently cultivated as ornamental trees in the eastern United States, where, however, they are usually short-lived and unsatisfactory. Many of the species are important timber-trees; their bark is often rich in tannin and is used for tanning leather, and all produce wood valuable for fuel and in the manufacture of charcoal.

_Quercus_ is the classical name of the Oak-tree.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.

Fruit maturing at the end of the second season (except 22); shell of the nut silky tomentose on the inner surface; leaves or their lobes bristle-tipped. Black Oaks. Stamens usually 4—6; styles elongated, finally recurved; abortive ovules apical. Leaves deciduous in their first autumn or winter. Leaves pinnately lobed, convolute in the bud. Leaves green on both surfaces. Scales of the cup of the fruit closely appressed. Leaves usually dull on the upper surface, 7—11-lobed; cup of the fruit cup-shaped or in one variety broad and saucer-shaped, its scales thin. 1. Q. borealis (A). Leaves lustrous. Leaves dimorphous, 5—7-lobed, axillary clusters of hairs large and prominent; cup of the fruit saucer-shaped or in one form deep cup-shaped. 2. Q. Shumardii (A, C). Leaves similar on upper and lower branches. Cup of the fruit turbinate or deep cup-shaped. Leaves 5-lobed, the lobes usually entire, rarely furnished with tufts of axillary hairs below. 3. Q. texana (C). Leaves 5—7-lobed, the lobes dentate, furnished with tufts of axillary hairs below. 4. Q. ellipsoidalis (A). Cup of the fruit deep cup-shaped to turbinate; leaves 5—9-lobed, the lobes toothed. 5. Q. coccinea (A, C). Cup of the fruit saucer-shaped. Leaves 5—9-lobed. 6. Q. palustris (A, C). Leaves 3—5-lobed. 7. Q. georgiana (C). Scales of the cup of the fruit more or less loosely imbricated, forming a free margin on its rim. Leaves usually 7-lobed. Winter-buds tomentose. 8. Q. velutina (A, C). Winter-buds pubescent only at apex. 9. Q. Kelloggii (G). Leaves usually 3—5-lobed; winter-buds rusty pubescent. 10. Q. Catesbæi (C). Leaves whitish or grayish tomentulose below. Leaves mostly acutely 5-lobed, pale or silvery white below. 11. Q. ilicifolia (A). Leaves often dimorphous, 3—11-lobed, the lobes often falcate. 12. Q. rubra (A, C). Leaves broad-obovate, often abruptly dilated at the wide obscurely lobed apex. Leaves rounded or cordate at base. Lower surface of the leaves orange color or brownish, the upper scales of the cup forming with several rows a thick rim on its inner surface, often reflexed. 13. Q. marilandica (A, C). Lower surface of the leaves pale, the erect scales on the rim of the cup in a single row. 14. Q. arkansana (C). Leaves cuneate at base. Leaves oblong-obovate. 15. Q. nigra (C). Leaves rhombic. 16. Q. rhombica (C). Leaves lanceolate-oblong or lanceolate-obovate, usually entire, involute in the bud. Willow Oaks. Leaves glabrous. Leaves lanceolate to oblanceolate, deciduous in autumn. 17. Q. Phellos (A, C). Leaves elliptic or rarely oblong-obovate, deciduous in the late winter. 18. Q. laurifolia (C). Leaves tomentose or pubescent below, oblong-lanceolate to oblong-obovate. Leaves pale blue-green, hoary tomentose below. 19. Q. cinerea (C). Leaves dark green, pubescent below. 20. Q. imbricaria (A). Leaves not deciduous in the autumn, revolute in the bud (convolute in 23). Leaves mostly persistent until after the appearance of those of the following year. Leaves lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic, pale and tomentose below. 21. Q. hypoleuca (E, H). Leaves oval, orbicular to oblong, green and pubescent below; fruit maturing at the end of the first season. 22. Q. agrifolia (G). Leaves persistent until their second summer or autumn. Leaves lanceolate to oval or oblong-lanceolate, entire or serrate; cup of the fruit turbinate or tubular. 23. Q. Wislizenii (G). Leaves oval to oblong-obovate; cup of the fruit saucer-shaped or turbinate. 24. Q. myrtifolia (C). Stamens usually 6—8; styles dilated; abortive ovules basal or lateral; leaves persistent until their third or fourth season, involute in the bud. Leaves oblong, entire, dentate, or sinuate-toothed, fulvous-tomentose and ultimately pale on the lower surface; cup of the fruit usually thick. 25. Q. chrysolepis (G, H). Leaves oblong-lanceolate, crenate-dentate or entire, pubescent or tomentose below; cup of the fruit usually thin. 26. Q. tomentella (G). Fruit maturing at the end of the first season; shell of the nut glabrous on the inner surface (hoary-tomentose in 27); abortive ovules basal; stamens 6—8; styles dilated; lobes of the leaves not bristle-tipped. White Oaks. Leaves mostly persistent until the appearance of those of the following year, revolute in the bud (convolute in 28). Leaves yellow-green. Fruit sessile or short-stalked. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, entire or repand-dentate; inner surface of the nut hoary tomentose. 27. Q. Emoryi (F, H). Leaves oblong or obovate, entire, sinuate-toothed or lobed. 28. Q. dumosa (G). Fruit long-stalked; leaves oblong, elliptic or obovate, pale, glabrous or in one form densely tomentose below. 29. Q. virginiana (C). Leaves blue-green. Fruit usually in many-fruited long-stalked clusters; leaves broad-obovate, coarsely reticulate-venulose. 30. Q. reticulata (H). Fruit solitary or in pairs. Cup of the fruit saucer-shaped; leaves ovate to ovate-oblong, entire. 31. Q. Toumeyi (H). Cup of the fruit cup-shaped or hemispherical, oblong-lanceolate to broad-obovate, pubescent below. 32. Q. arizonica (H). Cup of the fruit usually cup-shaped or turbinate. Leaves ovate, oval or obovate, usually cordate at base; fruit rather long-stalked. 33. Q. oblongifolia (E, H). Leaves oblong to obovate, usually cuneate or rounded or cordate at base. 34. Q. Engelmannii (G). Leaves deciduous in their first season. Leaves blue-green. Arboreous; leaves oblong, lobed, spinescent-dentate or entire, pubescent below; cup of the fruit shallow cup-shaped. 35. Q. Douglasii (G). Arborescent or shrubby. Leaves oblong to oblong-obovate, undulate-lobed; cup of the fruit saucer-shaped to cup-shaped. 36. Q. Vaseyana (C). Leaves oblong-obovate to elliptic or lanceolate, undulate, serrate-toothed or irregularly lobed; cup of the fruit hemispheric to cup-shaped. 37. Q. Mohriana (C). Leaves oblong to oblong-ovate, slightly lobed or entire; cup of the fruit cup-shaped or rarely saucer-shaped. 38. Q. Laceyi (C). Leaves yellow-green. Leaves entire or slightly lobed. Leaves different on upper and lower branches, oblong to oblong-obovate, slightly lobed or entire. Cup of the fruit cup-shaped. 39. Q. annulata (C). Cup of the fruit shallow saucer-shaped. 40. Q. Durandii (C). Leaves similar on upper and lower branches, entire or slightly sinuate-lobed toward the apex, oblong or oblong-obovate. 41. Q. Chapmanii (C). Leaves more or less deeply sinuate-lobed. Leaves white-tomentulose below (sometimes green and pubescent in 43). Leaves obovate or oblong, lyrately pinnatifid or deeply sinuate-lobed; cup of the fruit fringed by the awned scales. 42. Q. macrocarpa (A, C, F). Leaves obovate-oblong, deeply 5—9-lobed or pinnatifid; nut often inclosed in the cup. 43. Q. lyrata (A, C). Leaves pubescent below. Leaves usually covered above with fascicled hairs, obovate, 3—5-lobed, their lobes truncate or rounded. 44. Q. stellata (A, C). Leaves glabrous above at maturity. Leaves obovate to oblong; cup of the fruit shallow cup-shaped or slightly turbinate, its scales usually thin. 45. Q. Garryana (B, G). Leaves oblong-obovate; cup of the fruit hemispheric, the scales often much thickened. 46. Q. utahensis (F). Leaves oblong-obovate, deeply lobed; nut conic, elongated, inclosed for one-third its length in the cup-shaped cup. 47. Q. lobata (G). Leaves glabrate or puberulous below, oblong to oblong-obovate. 48. Q. leptophylla (F). Leaves glabrous below. Leaves oblong-obovate, usually 5-lobed. 49. Q. austrina (C). Leaves oblong-obovate, obliquely pinnatifid or 3—9-lobed. 50. Q. alba (A, C). Leaves coarsely sinuate-toothed. Chestnut Oaks. Fruit on peduncles much longer than the petioles; leaves obovate or oblong-obovate, generally sinuate-dentate or lobed, pubescent, and usually hoary on the lower surface. 51. Q. bicolor (C). Fruit on peduncles about as long or shorter than the petioles. Leaves obovate or oblong-obovate, cuneate or rounded at the broad or narrow base, tomentose or pubescent and often silvery white below. 52. Q. Prinus (A, C). Leaves obovate or oblong to lanceolate, acuminate, with rounded or acute teeth. 53. Q. montana (A, C). Fruit sessile or nearly so; leaves oblong to lanceolate, acute or acuminate or broadly obovate, puberulous and pale, often silvery white on the lower surface. 54. Q. Muehlenbergii (A, C).

1. Quercus borealis Michx. Red Oak.