150 FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES. 



with agreeable luminous color, especially in the mid- 

 dle distance. 



The yellow chestnut oak has a pe- 

 culiarly narrow leaf scarcely two 



Yellow Chestnut Oak. 



(Juercus Muhlenbergii. 



inches in width, which more near- 

 ly resembles the chestnut leaf than that of any other 



chestnut oak. The 

 tree grows from 80 to 

 100, and sometimes 160 

 feet high, but it rarely 

 exceeds an altitude of 

 50 feet when growing 

 in the open. The bark 

 of the trunk is dull, sil- 

 very gray, with a more 



or less scaly surface. The 

 leaves, which are a beautiful 

 yellow green above and silvery 

 gray below, are crowded at the 

 ends of the branches, and hang so that 

 the under surfaces show with every 

 passing breeze. This imparts a novel 

 and delightful nickering color to the 

 tree which reminds one of the trem- 

 bling aspen ; but the oak's shift of 

 light is slower, and its coloring is far richer. In 

 autumn the leaves turn an orange-bronze hue. 



Yellow Chestnut 

 Oak. 



