THE OAKS WITH ACORNS. 163 



is also, as Ruskin would say, " deeply rent," for the 

 lobes are cut very deeply, and impart a very ragged 

 appearance to the foliage. 



The acorn has a thick, top-shaped cup, which 

 covers the third of the nut. The kernel is bitter and 

 whitish. The bark of the trunk is thick, brownish, 

 and roughly seamed. The tree grows from 70 to 80 

 feet high, and is one of our most charmingly orna- 

 mental sylvan characters, particularly suited to the 

 landscape garden because of its beautiful autumn 

 coloring, and its vivacious leafage which fairly 

 sparkles in the sunlight. 



The scarlet oak grows beside the Androscoggin 

 River in Maine, and extends thinly through south- 

 ern New Hampshire to Yermont and central New 

 York. It also extends from Massachusetts Bay to 

 the District of Columbia and along the Alleghany 

 Mountains to North Carolina ; westward it is found 

 from Michigan and Illinois to Nebraska and Min- 

 nesota. 



Black Oak. The leaves of the black oak are not 

 Quercus coccmea, &Q ^ggpiy incised as those of the scar- 



var. tinctoria. *- d 



Quercus veiutina. let oak, and its trunk is much darker 

 in color ; in fact, its branches often appear blackish. 

 The tree grows 70 to 80 and rarely 150 feet high. It 

 has a wide range, which extends from New York to 

 the Gulf States. Its limit eastward is in southern New 



