Till-: PINK LANDS. 121 



divided, the straight veins extending from the midrib to the 

 margin. Like the pine, the oak puts forth two kinds of 

 flowers, the pistillate and the staminate. In the pistillate 

 flowers, each ovary has three stigmas and three cells, with 

 two ovules in each ; but in ripening only one of the six ovules 

 becomes a seed. The fruit of the oak is the acorn, a one- 

 seeded nut, fixed in a woody cup or involucre. Under the 

 oak at the time of flowering are found acorns of the preced- 

 ing year in different stages of germination. The two cotyle- 

 dons, to extricate themselves, burst the shell, thrust forth 

 their petioles, with the plumule to grow upward and the radicle 

 to grow downward. The acorn ripens the autumn following 

 its flower; the seed is well-flavored and eaten by both man 

 and beast. They are abundant, always yielding a fair crop, 

 and sometimes an immense one. The wood of the oak, when 

 split into thin slivers, is an excellent basket material. Baskets 

 made of oak are noted for their strength and durability. 



Nut galls are produced on the leaves and twigs of oaks, by 

 the puncture of insects depositing their eggs. On the leaves 

 they are usually spherical or marble-like, but they differ in 

 size and texture ; sometimes they are quite solid, with thick 

 walls, and again they have paper-like coverings, and are filled 

 with loose tissue. Through the outer covering, in time a 

 series of pointed processes appears, each of which is a larval 

 cell, and from fifty to a hundred larvse sometimes form a large 

 gall. Galls also occur on the roots. Most of the orders of 

 insects contain gall makers. The Hymenoptera, or wasp 

 family, do a great deal of injury. 



One theory for the growth of the gall is that there may be 

 some virus deposited with the egg, or that the irritation 

 caused by the larva, which lives in the gall till it is developed 

 into an insect, causes it. 



Leaving the bitter galls, let us turn to the sweet flora of 

 the pines. On the edges of the uplands, we find almost the 

 same variety prevails as in the swamp ; the hickory, sassafras, 

 gum, birch, maple, wild cherry, cedar, magnolia, spruce 



