Part 17 (2/2)

3. Sterile flower, back view.

4. Sterile flower, front view.

5. Fertile flowers.

6. Fruiting branch.

7. Variant leaf.

=Quercus Muhlenbergii, Engelm.=

_Quercus ac.u.minata, 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, coa.r.s.e, sharp, and often inflexed teeth; apex ac.u.minate; 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XLII.--Quercus Muhlenbergii.]

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 a.s.suming a tree-like habit. The leaves vary from rather narrow-elliptical to broadly obovate, are rather regularly and coa.r.s.ely toothed, bright green and often l.u.s.trous on the upper surface.

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