OAK 99 
The tree is perhaps best known by its stout and lofty bole or base 
of the trunk. The stem is erect, branched, the branches ascending or 
spreading, never drooping. 
Reaching a height of 150 ft., and having an enormous girth, up 
to 70 ft. in circumference, the Oak is one of the largest British trees. 
The Newland Oak, for instance, has a girth of 60 ft., the Cowthorpe 
Oak, Yorkshire, being 70 ft. The thick trunk, which is usually short, 
gives rise to several thick long arms, the lower often horizontal, the 
upper ascending and spreading, forming an elbow or angle, and thus 
giving it a twisted appearance. This arrangement makes the crown 
a semicircular one, and in this variety in the summer appearance the 
foliage is in dense masses, broken by the elbows of the branches, and 
at no distance from the ground. In the winter stage the irregular 
branching is well seen. 
The resting buds have numerous pairs of scales or stipules of un- 
developed leaves. The lateral buds are in clusters at the tip of the 
twigs. The lower buds are inactive for long periods. This causes 
the zigzag arrangement of branches. The leaves are lobed, spirally 
arranged, 4 in the tufts at the ends of branches. The leaves are 
stalked and have temporary stipules. The stalk is short, the blade 
is hairless, not tapered at the base. The leaves fall in November. 
The Oak is a moncecious plant, and both male and female catkins are 
borne on the same shoot. The male on the dwarf shoots are pendent, 
and both male and female occur on terminal parts of the previous year's 
twigs. There is one stalkless female flower in the axils of the bract 
scales. The male catkin has many catkin scales. The male flowers 
have 5-7 united sepals, 5-12 stamens. The female inflorescence has 
fewer flowers (1-5), and has a distinct stalk with lateral flowers. The 
fruit, an acorn, is developed from a 1-seeded ovary, 5 of the ovules not 
developing. The cupule or cup has close overlapping scales. The 
acorns are distant. The three carpels are united with a three-chambered 
ovary and 2 ovules in each chamber. Five of the 6 ovules do not 
mature. 
The tree may be 60 ft. high. It flowers in April and May. It 
is a deciduous tree, propagated by seed. Like other Cupuliferze the 
flower is pollinated by the wind. Each spike contains one female 
flower, which forms the acorn cup at the base, or a cluster of flowers. 
The male flowers hang in drooping catkins, with ro projecting stamens. 
The fruit or acorn when ripe drops, owing to its great weight, to 
the ground, and is later released from the cupule, or it may be carried 
by birds or animals to a distance as food, whilst being semi-detached 
