Plate XLV.—Quercus velutina.
| 1. Winter buds. |
| 2. Flowering branch. |
| 3. Sterile flower, 4-lobed calyx. |
| 4. Sterile flower, 3-lobed calyx. |
| 5. Fertile flower. |
| 6. Fruiting branch. |
| 7. Fruit. |
| 8. Variant leaf. |
Quercus palustris, Du Roi.
Pin Oak. Swamp Oak. Water Oak.
Habitat and Range.—Low grounds, borders of forests, wet woods, river banks, islets in swamps.
Ontario.
Northern New England,—no station reported; Massachusetts,—Amherst (Stone, Bull. Torrey Club, IX, 57; J. E. Humphrey, Amherst Trees); Springfield, south to Connecticut, rare; Rhode Island,—southern portions, bordering the great Kingston swamp, and on the margin of the Pawcatuck river (L. W. Russell); Connecticut,—common along the sound, frequent northward, extending along the valley of the Connecticut river to the Massachusetts line.
South to the valley of the lower Potomac in Virginia; west to Minnesota, east Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian territory.
Habit.—A medium-sized tree, 40-50 feet high, with trunk diameter of 1-2 feet, occasionally reaching a height of 60-70 feet (L. W. Russell), but attaining its maximum of 100 feet in height and upward in the basins of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; trunk rather slender, often fringed with short, drooping branchlets, lower tier of branches short and mostly descending, the upper long, slender, and often beset with short, lateral shoots, which give rise to the common name; head graceful, open, rounded and symmetrical when young, in old age becoming more or less irregular; foliage delicate; bright shining green in autumn, often turning to a brilliant scarlet.
Bark.—Bark of trunk dark, furrowed and broken in old trees, in young trees grayish-brown, smoothish; branchlets shining, light brown.