Part 16 (1/2)
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds 1/8 to 1/4 inch long, round-ovate, reddish-brown. Leaves simple, alternate, 3-7 inches long, 2-4 inches wide, delicately reddish-tinted and p.u.b.escent upon both sides when young; at maturity glabrous, light dull or glossy green above, paler and somewhat glaucous beneath, turning to various reds in autumn; outline obovate to oval; lobes 5-9; ascending, varying greatly in different trees; when few, short and wide-based, with comparatively shallow sinuses; when more in number, ovate-oblong, with deeper sinuses, or somewhat linear-oblong, with sinuses reaching nearly to midrib; apex of lobe rounded; base of leaf tapering; leafstalks short; stipules linear, soon falling. The leaves of this species are often persistent till spring, especially in young trees.
=Inflorescence.=--May. Appearing when the leaves are half grown; sterile catkins 2-3 inches long, with slender, usually p.u.b.escent thread; calyx yellow, p.u.b.escent; lobes 5-9, pointed: pistillate flowers sessile or short-peduncled, reddish, ovate-scaled.
=Fruit.=--Maturing in the autumn of the first year, single, or more frequently in pairs, sessile or peduncled: cup hemispherical to deep saucer-shaped, rather thin; scales rough-k.n.o.bby at base: acorn varying from 1/2 inch to an inch in length, oblong-ovoid: meat sweet and edible, said to be when boiled a good subst.i.tute for chestnuts.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in New England; grows well in all except very wet soils, in all open exposures and in light shade; like all oaks, difficult to transplant unless prepared by frequent transplanting in nurseries, from which it is not readily obtainable in quant.i.ty; grows very slowly and nearly uniformly up to maturity; comparatively free from insect enemies but occasionally disfigured by fungous disease which attacks immature leaves in spring. Propagated from seed.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE x.x.xVII.--Quercus alba.]
1. Winter buds.
2. Flowering branch.
3-4. Sterile flower, front view.
5. Fertile flower, side view.
6. Fruiting branch.
7-8. Variant leaves.
=Quercus stellata, w.a.n.g.=
_Q. obtusiloba, Michx. Q. minor, Sarg_.
POST OAK. BOX WHITE OAK.
=Habitat and Range.=
Doubtfully reported from southern Ontario.
In New England, mostly in sterile soil near the sea-coast; Ma.s.sachusetts,--southern Cape Cod from Falmouth to Brewster, the most northern station reported, occasional; the islands of Naushon, Martha's Vineyard where it is rather common, and Nantucket where it is rare; Rhode Island,--along the sh.o.r.e of the northern arm of Wickford harbor (L. W. Russell); Connecticut,--occasional along the sh.o.r.es of Long Island sound west of New Haven.
South to Florida; west to Kansas, Indian territory, and Texas.
=Habit.=--Farther south, a tree of the first magnitude, reaching a height of 100 feet, with a trunk diameter of 4 feet; in southern New England occasionally attaining in woodlands a height of 50-60 feet; at its northern limit in Ma.s.sachusetts, usually 10 to 35 feet in height, with a diameter at the ground of 6-12 inches. The trunk throws out stout, tough, and often conspicuously crooked branches, the lower horizontal or declining, forming a disproportionately large head, with dark green, dense foliage. Near the sh.o.r.e the limbs often grow very low, stretching along the ground as if from an underground stem.
=Bark.=--Resembling that of the white oak, but rather a darker gray, rougher and firmer; upon old trunks furrowed and cut into oblongs; small limbs brownish-gray, rough-dotted; season's shoots densely tawny-tomentose.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, rounded or conical, brownish, scales minutely p.u.b.escent or scurfy. Leaves simple, alternate, 3-8 inches long, two-thirds as wide, thickish, yellowish-green and tomentose upon both sides when young, becoming a deep, somewhat glossy green above, lighter beneath, both sides still somewhat scurfy; general outline of leaf and of lobes, and number and shape of the latter, extremely variable; type-form 5-lobed, all the lobes rounded, the three upper lobes much larger, more or less subdivided, often squarish, the two lower tapering to an acute, rounded, or truncate base; sinuses deep, variable, often at right angles to the midrib; leafstalk short, tomentose; stipules linear, p.u.b.escent, occasionally persistent till midsummer. The leaves are often arranged at the tips of the branches in star-shaped cl.u.s.ters, giving rise to the specific name _stellata_.
=Inflorescence.=--May. Sterile catkins 1-3 inches long, connecting thread woolly; calyx 4-8 parted, lobes acute, densely p.u.b.escent, yellow; stamens 4-8, _anthers with scattered hairs_: pistillate flowers single or in cl.u.s.ters of 2, 3, or more, sessile or on a short stem; stigma red.
=Fruit.=--Maturing the first season, single and sessile, or nearly so, or in cl.u.s.ters of 2, 3, or more, on short footstalks: cup top-shaped or cup-shaped, 1/3-1/2 the length of the acorn, about 3/4 inch wide, thin; scales smooth or sometimes hairy along the top, acutish or roundish, slightly thickened at base: acorn 1/2-1 inch long, sweet.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in New England; prefers a good, well-drained, open soil; quite as slow-growing as the white oak; seldom found in nurseries and difficult to transplant. Propagated from the seed.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE x.x.xVIII.--Quercus stellata.]
1. Winter buds.
2. Flowering branch.
3. Sterile flower, back view.
4. Sterile flower, front view.