CHAP. CV.

coryla'cea:. que'rcus.

1877

the name of Q. bicolor, of which the plate of this tree in our lastVolume is a portrait.

§ v. Rubra:. Red American Oaks.

Sect. Char. Leaves deeply lobed, sinuated, multifid, and mucronated. Barkdark, and not scaling off. Fructification biennial. Nut ovate, with a per-sistent style. Cup imbricate, large in proportion to the nut. Trees, varyingfrom 80 ft. or 90 ft. to 15 ft. or 20 ft. in height; remarkable for the brightred, deep scarlet, or dark purple, of their foliage, when it dies off in autumn.Perhaps most of the kinds in this section might be reduced to two or threespecies ; but, as they come up tolerably true from seed, we have consideredit more convenient for the cultivator to treat them as distinct. The har-diest and most rapid-growing, and at the same time the most elegant andornamental, tree of the section is Q. palustris, which, with its spreadingdrooping branches, and its straight erect trunk and spiry top, is, indepen-dently of its lively scarlet, orange, and red colours in spring and autumn, inour opinion, the most graceful of all oaks, either European or American.

¥ 14. Q. ru'bra L. The red, or Champion, Oak.

Identification. Lin. Sp. PI., 1413.; Willd. Sp. Pi, 4. p. 445. ; Ait. Hort. Kew., 5. p. 292. ; PurshFI. Amer, Sept., 2. p. 630.; Michx. Quer., No. 20.; Smith in Abb. Ins., 2. p. 105.; N. Du Ham,, 7.p. 170.; Smith in Rees’s Cycl., No. 60.

Synonyme. Q. £'sculi divisura, &c., Pluk. Phyt. , t 54. f. 4.

Engravings. Pluk. Phyt, t. 54. f. 4.; Michx. Quer., t. 35,36.; North Amer. Syl., 2. t. 28.; our figs.1740. to 1744.; and the plates of this species in our last Volume.

Spec. Char,, Sfc. Leaves smooth, oblong, sinuated, on long stalks ; lobes acutesharply toothed, bristle-pointed. Calyx of the fruit flat underneath.Nut ovate. ( Willd.') A tree 80 ft. or 90 ft. in height. Introduced in 1739.Varieties. Aiton, in the Hortus Kewensis, 2d ed., mentions two varieties : Q.rubra latifolia, the champion oak, which is the Q. rubra of Linnaeus; and Q.rubra montana, the mountain red oak.

Description, fyc. The red oak is, in America, a tall widely spreading tree,frequently more than 80 ft. high, and with a trunk 3 ft. or 4 ft. in diameter.The bark is comparatively smooth, of a dark colour, very thick; and, though inold trees it cracks, yet it never scales off as in the sections A'lbteand Frinus.The wood is reddish and coarse-grained; and its pores are often so large asto admit the entrance of a hair. The leaves, when they first come out in spring,are of a fine sulphur colour; when fully expanded, they are smooth andshining on both sides, large, deeply laciniated, and sometimes slightly roundedat the base, especially on old trees; and, before they fall, they turn of adeep purplish red. According to the younger Michaux, the leaves on old

trees often nearly resemble those of <2. falcata. The leaves of Q. falcataare, however, always downy beneath; while those of Q. rubra are smooth.

6 f 4

n

iwm

mm