330 A MANUAL 'OF FORESTRY. 



Seeds minute, singly in the small fruits. Seedling 

 very small, cotyledons oval, as big as the head of a 

 common pin. First leaves not much larger, lobed, 

 very hairy. 



10. OAK. 

 Quercus Rolur (L.). Cupuliferee. 



Large spreading tree with zigzag, gnarled branches. 

 Bark brown, and rough with irregular longitudinal 

 fissures. Young branches silvery grey and smooth ; 

 many are cast off. 



Buds short, rather large, fat, ovoid, scaly and pale 

 brown ; tend to be clustered at ends of twigs. 



Leaves alternate, obovate to oblong, sinuous or 

 pinnately lobed, sub -sessile, and somewhat auricled at 

 the base (the variety sessiliflora has distinct petioles 

 J to 1 inch long), pale olive and apple-green when 

 young, dark and smooth when mature. Young trees 

 tend to retain the dead leaves in winter. 



Male flowers yellowish green, in small tufts arranged 

 along long slender, pendulous stalks, appearing in spring 

 and very caducous. Female flowers pinkish, in threes, 

 in small clusters sessile near the end of erect, stiff 

 peduncles (the variety sessiliflora has the female 

 clusters sessile in the axils of the leaves). 



Fruit, the well-known acorn, single in a scaly cup. 



Wood yellowish when young, and in the narrow 

 alburnum ; the heart-wood grey -brown to dark brown, 

 pith and earlier annual rings pentagonal. Some of the 

 medullary rays very broad. The spring vessels very 

 large. 



