THE OAKS WITH ACORNS. 



149 



in Bucks and Lancaster Counties, Pa., and extends west- 

 ward to Montana and Indian Territory. The exten- 

 sive " oak openings " in the prairies are mostly formed 

 of the burr oak ; and Dr. P. R. Hoy, of the Phila- 

 delphia Academy of Natural Sciences, speaks of it as 

 a Western oak, which can not be excelled in graceful 

 beauty when it is not crowded in growth, but left free 

 to follow the law of its development. The changing 

 colors of the long leaf as it is agitated 

 by the wind give the tree a sin- 

 gularly beautiful appearance 

 in summer ; in winter it 

 may readily be identified by 

 its curiously winged 

 branchlets. The tree 

 is most abundant and 

 reaches its finest develop- 

 ment in the Mississippi basin 

 and Indiana and Illinois. Its wood 

 is superior in strength to that of the 

 other oaks. 



Southern Over-cup Oak. The Southern over- 

 Quercus lyrata. cup oak is a large 

 tree growing 70 to 80 and sometimes 

 100 feet hiffh, which inhabits the river southern over-cup 



& ' Oak. 



swamps of North Carolina and south- 

 ern Indiana, and extends along the coast from south- 



