24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Qnercns Michauxii is distiuctly of the 

 South and is the best southern representative 

 of the white oaks. Some authorities contend 

 that it is really a variety of the swamp white 

 oak, Qvercus platanoides, basing their belief 

 on the resemblance of the two and on the fact 

 that their ranges meet but do not overlap. 

 This oak thrives best in wet, swamjiy locali- 

 ties where it is found in company with 

 water hickory, swamp bay, water elm, 

 water oak, the gums and red maple. 

 In such places it is not difficult to cul- 

 tivate. 



From the northern limits of its 

 growth in Delaware, where it is not 

 of any considerable size, it grows 

 south through the Atlantic states and 

 into Florida, west in the Gulf states 

 to the Trinity river in Texas, and uji 

 the Mississippi valley, including in its 

 range Arkansas, eastern llissouri, 

 southern Indiana and Illinois and 

 western Kentucky and Tennessee. 



Quercus Michauxii has various sec- 

 tional names as follows: basket oak 

 in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 

 Texas and Arkansas; cow oak in Ala- 

 bama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas 

 and Missouri ; swamp white oak in 

 Delaware and Alabama and swamp 

 chestnut oak in Florida. 



In general appearance the tree gives 

 the impression of massiveness and 

 strength, offset by the delicate, silvery 

 effect of the bark and the lining of 

 the foliage. The usual height is sixty 

 lo eighty feet, but it often exceeds a 

 Imndred ■ feet, the bole attaining a 

 diameter of as high as seven feet and 

 showing three log lengths clear. The 

 characteristic light grey, scaly, white 

 oak bark covers trunk and heavy 

 limbs, which rise at narrow angles, 

 forming a rounded head and dividing 

 into stout branches and twigs. The 

 winter buds are not characteristic of 

 white oak, being long and pointed 

 rather than rounded. They are about 

 M inch in length, scaly, with red hairs 

 and usually in threes on the ends of 

 the twigs. The general texture of the 

 leaves is thick and heavy, their upper 

 surfaces being dark, lustrous green 

 and the lower white and toraentose. 

 They are five to seven inches long with 

 heavy petioles an inch in length and 

 of the general outline of the chestnut leaf. 

 Their rich crimson color is conspicuous in the 

 fall after turning. 



The staminate flowers are in hairy aments 

 three to four inches long, and the pistillate 

 ones in short, peduneled spikes. Large edible 

 acorns are borne every year. They are one 

 to one and one-half inches in length, and 

 buried for half their length in the scaly gray 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



EIGHTY-FIRST PAPER 



Basket or Cow Oak 



f^itf/rcus Michau-cii. — Nutt. 



eups that are often fiat on the bottom. They 

 grow either in pairs or solitary, and the stalks 

 if any are short. 



As a timber tree basket oak is of great 

 value, producing wood suitable in every way 

 to the uses to which true white oak is put. 

 The wood is heavy, hard, strong and durable, 

 the heart being light brown and the sap being 



for which use it is unsurpassed. From this 

 use comes the common name, basket oak. The 

 durability, strength and hardness of this wood 

 render it suitable also for ties, poles, con- 

 struction timber, cooperage, wheel-stock and 

 fencing. It is used extensively for interior 

 work, furniture and agricultural implements 

 and for fuel. 



Structurally the wood is ring-por- 

 ous, the large spring pores being ar- 

 ranged as a rule in a single row. A 

 radial (quarter-sawn) cut shows a 

 rather lustrous surface. The specific 

 gravity of the wood is .8039; one 

 cubic foot weighs fifty pounds. Using 

 kilograms and square centimeters as 

 units, the coefficient of elasticity is 

 96373; modulus of rupture, 1118; lon- 

 gitudinal resistance, 482. 



The sweet acorn is valuable in graz- 

 ing, hence the name cow oak. This is 

 conceded to be the best and most pro- 

 lific mast tree we have. The accom- 

 panying photograph of a specimen of 

 virgin growth of basket oak was taken 

 by the editor of Hardwood Eecord, 

 in Baleigh county, West Virginia. 



This representation of the large 

 oak family is one of the group of 

 chestnut oaks, of which there are 

 three others. These trees are so 

 called because of the similarity of 

 their leaves to those of the chestnut, 

 the chief jioint of dift'erence being 

 iu the lobes. All four are under the 

 broader heading, white oak, and pro- 

 duce lumber of excellent qualities. 



■XIKEST (iUOWTlI llASKET OAK, KAl.liKJII COUNTY, W. VA. 



thin and darker. In quarter sawing the grain 

 is not as beautiful as some of the other oaks, 

 the medullary rays being few and large and 

 giving a blotchy appearance to the wood. 

 Probably owing to the moist conditions of its 

 growth, the tree shows wide annual rings and 

 large spring ducts which render it tough and 

 easily split, the annual layers separating read- 

 ily, making it adaptable to basket making. 



Freaks of Tree Growth 



Tlie sofar, or whistling tree of 

 Nubia, is a curious example of na- 

 ture 's freaks. On hearing for the 

 first time the weird chords that 

 emanate from its branches during a 

 wind storm, one is not surprised at 

 tlie native superstition that the spirit 

 of a dead singer makes his home 

 among them. But more practical 

 white men attribute the sounds to 

 the labyrinth of minute tunnels bored 

 by a certain insect in the spines of 

 this tree. 



.\nother more practical freak is 

 tciund in the weeping tree of the 

 Canary Islands, which keeps the na- 

 tives supplied with pure water even 

 in the driest weather. The leaves have nu- 

 merous pores at their base, which seem in- 

 capable of closing and emit a continuous 

 shower of mimite drops. 



The Roys Hardwood & Implement Company of 

 liuKsellville, Mo., was recently chartered with a 

 capital stock of $] 5,000. The incorporators are 

 Charles W. Monroe and J. W. Burke of St. 

 Louis, Mc, and R. F. Roys of Russellville. 



