; outline lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, with
rather equal, coarse, sharp, and often inflexed teeth; apex acuminate;
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.

[Illustration: 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 assuming a tree-like habit. The
leaves vary from rather narrow-elliptical to broadly obovate, are rather
regularly and coarsely toothed, bright green and often lustrous on the
upper surface.

=Quercus rubra, L.=

RED OAK.

=Habitat and Range.=--Growing impartially in a great variety of soils,
but not on wet lands.

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to divide west of Lake Superior.

Maine,--common, at least south of the central portions; New
Hampshire,--extending into Coos county, far north of the
White mountains; Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut,--common; probably in most parts of New England the most
common of the genus; found higher up the slopes of mountains than the
white oak.

South to Tennessee, Virginia, and along mountain ranges to Georgia;
reported from Florida; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and
Texas.

=Habit.=--The largest of the New Eng