II. 1. THE SCARLET OAK. 145 



is straight, rather rapidly, but not abruptly diminishing. The 

 bark on small trees is of a reddish granite color, rough, with 

 numerous short clefts; on older trees the bark has a bluish 

 tinge, whereby it may be distinguished from that of the black 

 oak. The recent branchlets are of a light purplish green, very 

 smooth, older ones darker, purplish green ; larger branches 

 grayish. 



The flowers appear in May; the sterile on a slender green 

 thread, two or three inches long, set with a few scattered hairs. 

 The perianth is brown, on a very short footstalk, single, deeply 

 divided into four to six jagged, unequal, fringed lobes. The 

 stamens are five, (four to six,) on filaments longer than the 

 perianth, and a little hairy above and below. 



The acorn is small, of a lengthened globose form, in a deep 

 cup considerably prolonged at base, the upper edge of which is 

 very abrupt, and the scales rather large, not free, but usually 

 close at the edge of the cup, and hairy on the side edges. The 

 kernel is white, and. less bitter than that of the black oak. 



The leaves are on long, slender, smooth petioles, irregular in 

 shape, but oblong or roundish in the general outline, very deeply 

 sinuate, with about three broad, rounded sinuosities; lobes long, 

 acute-angled, or with their sides nearly parallel, ending in a 

 bristle ; thin and very smooth, and polished on both surfaces, 

 except that they sometimes have a slight pubescence at the 

 angles of the veins beneath. The leaves are commonly ine- 

 quilateral and obtuse at base, though sometimes acute, and end 

 in an oblong, narrow lobe, partially divided into three parts. 



This tree may be usually distinguished from the black oak, at 

 a little distance, by its more deeply cut foliage, and consequently 

 lighter appearance, and also by the brighter and lighter hue of 

 the leaves, and the brilliancy of the points of reflected sunlight. 

 Yet, from the general similarity of the two, and the numerous 

 varieties of each species, an inexperienced observer is very apt 

 to imagine that he finds both, in a forest made up exclusively 

 of either ; and it must be admitted, that they often approach so 

 near each other in character, that it is exceedingly difficult to 

 distinguish them without cutting into the bark, except after 

 the change in the color of the foliage, which takes place in 

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