II. 1. THE WHITE OAK. 127 



Sp. 1. The White Oak. Quercus alba. Linn. 



Leaves and fruit figured in Michaux ; Sylva, Plate 1 ; the tree, in Loudon'8 



Arboretum ; Plate 69. E. 

 In Audubon's Birds of America, Plate 107, the leaves are figured, with the 



Canada Jay, and in Plate 147 ; and leaves, flowers and fruit in the first plate 



in this volume. 



Not a prince, 

 In all that proud old world beyond the deep, 

 E'er wore his crown as loftily as he 

 "Wears the green coronal of leaves with which 

 Thy hand has graced him. — Bryant's Forest Hymn. 



The white oak rises from many strong roots, which swell 

 out, near the base, above the surface, and penetrate deep and 

 to a great distance beneath. It is two, to four or five feet in 

 diameter. The perpendicular trunk, in most of the trees which 

 are standing in our fields and pastures, is not long. In old 

 forests, it sometimes reaches the height of sixty or eighty feet, 

 and even more. Limbs very large, diverging at a very large 

 but not uniform angle, from a broad, gnarled, massive junc- 

 ture. Some of them go out horizontally, variously contorted, 

 much and variously branched. The higher limbs make a 

 sharper angle. They all often make considerable bends, in 

 any direction, upwards, downwards, or on either side. Spray 

 of many twigs, at right angles, in all directions, miniatures of 

 the larger limbs. The bark on the trunk is of a very light ash- 

 color, whence it is universally known, and always called the 

 white oak. And it is the only oak which has but one name. 

 The bark naturally breaks into small, irregular, four-sided 

 plates, which often easily scale off. The leaves, on short peti- 

 oles, are four to six inches long and two or three wide. They 

 are pubescent beneath when young, but smooth when old ; the 

 upper surface of a bright, shining green, the lower paler or glau- 

 cous, in substance almost coriaceous. They are always deeply 

 divided into lobes, about three or four on each side, which are 

 oblong, rounded or obtuse, rarely subdivided. The leaves dif- 

 fer very much, in different localities. Sometimes the lobes are 

 almost linear, making skeleton leaves. Sometimes the leaves 



