30 CONVERSATIONS ON THE 



" The red oak is very common, too ; it 

 grows to the height of about eighty feet, and 

 is two or three feet thick ; the leaf is cut into 

 very deep scallops, and it bears the largest 

 acorns of all the oaks except one ; hogs are 

 very fond of these nuts, and so are horses and 

 cows, but the wood is not good for much ; its 

 o-reatest use is to make staves for all sorts 

 of barrels except those which are intended for 

 liquors. 



" These are the four principal sorts of oaks ; 

 but, as I have already told you, there a great 

 many varieties ; there is the mossy cup oak, 

 so called because the cup has a fringe round 

 its edge ; the over cup white oak that bears 

 an acorn almost as large as a hen's egg ; the 

 post oak, with a very small sweet acorn much 

 eaten by Avild turkeys and squirrels ; the over 

 cup oak, the acorn of which is completely 

 covered up in its cup ; the willow oak, with a 

 long slender leaf like that of the willow ; the 

 running oak, which is the smallest known in 

 the world, being only from sixteen to twenty 

 inches in height ; the water oak, with leaves 

 shaped like a pear : and several others." 



"Then you cannot always tell an oak-tree 

 by the shape of the leaf, Uncle Philip; T thought 



