SELECT LISTS Of PLANTS. 291 



the most part highly valued for ornament as well as their hard and dur- 

 able timber, and there are few other kinds of trees that 'have been more 

 celebrated in peace and war than the Oaks. The flowers are monoecious : 

 the statninate flowers in catkins, the pistillate in a cup-like involucre, 

 covered with scales ; the seed a one-celled nut, well known under the 

 common name of Acorn. The acorns of some species of the Oak ripen 

 the first season ; in others not until the autumn of the second, but all ap- 

 pear to be inclined to germinate very soon after they have fallen and come 

 in contact with the moist earth ; consequently, whatever is to be done in 

 the way of gathering, storing, or sowing, must not be delayed long after 

 the acorns begin to fall from the trees. If the acorns are shaken from 

 the trees, or picked up as they fall, they may be preserved in a cool 

 room for weeks, and some species for several months, without serious 

 injury ; but, as a rule, acorns are rather difficult to preserve in good con- 

 dition for growth, and the sooner they are sown after ripening, the 

 better. In some few of the species, the nuts do not fall out of the cup, 

 but both drop together, and the acorn remains within the husk until it 

 germinates the following spring, when it bursts both the inner and outer 

 shell in its germination. But this form of acorn is rather an excep- 

 tion than the rule ; those of a larger majority of the species begin to 

 grow in the fall, the root or radicle penetrating the soil for several 

 inches, thereby holding the acorn in a position for the production of the 

 plumule or stem, the following spring. Any one who has taken a stroll 

 on the edge of an oak forest late in the fall, must have noticed these 

 "anchored" acorns, while the cotyledons or seed-leaves still remained 

 within the inner shell. But when fairly within an oak forest, we find 

 that the acorns as they fall do not come in direct contact with the soil, 

 the layers of old tough leaves on the surface preventing ; consequently 

 the larger proportion of the acorns perish for the want of suitable 

 anchorage, or conditions favorable for growth. 



In sowing acorns, they may be scattered in single or broad drills, or 

 even broadcast over the surface of a seed-bed, and then lightly covered 

 with hay, chaff, or very fine old manure or leaf-mold. In such positions 

 they will take root in the autumn, and the next season make a vigorous 

 growth. As with other nuts, a light, sandy soil will insure a far greater 

 number of fibrous roots than a heavy one. Those persons who live near 

 oak forests can always secure a stock of seedlings, without the trouble 

 or cost of gathering and sowing the nuts, by merely raking away the old 

 leaves from under the trees of the species they desire to secure. The 

 acorns falling on the bare ground will soon sprout and become fixed in 

 position, and the leaves falling later will give them ample protection. 

 I have practised this with eminent success with our common White and 

 Black Oaks, and while the seedlings obtained in this way were not as 

 large as those raised in the nursery, they were still fair plants and made 

 a good, vigorous growth when transplanted to nursery-rows. Of course, 

 it is not to be supposed that seedlings can be obtained in this way in 

 regions where hogs are pastured in the woods. Kare species and varieties 



