WILLOW OAK (Quercus phellos, Linn.). 70 to 80 feet. 

 Graceful, tall, quick-growing oak, with narrow, round head of 

 slender branches. Bark light red-brown, with scaly surface 

 and shallow fissures. Wood soft, coarse-grained, heavy, used 

 in construction, for wheel fellies, and clapboards. Leaves 

 leathery, willow-like, with an occasional side lobe and a mi- 

 nute spiny tip; glossy green above, paler, dull beneath; 2 to 5 

 inches long; petioles short. Flowers delicate, hairy, of the 

 oak type. Acorns few, solitary, or paired, \ inch across, flat- 

 based, in thin, saucer-like cup of thin, hairy, reddish-brown 

 scales; kernel bitter. Dist.: Wet ground, swamps, coast 

 belt Staten Island to Florida and along Gulf coast to Texas; 

 north along river to Kentucky and Missouri. Fine shade and 

 ornamental tree, much planted in Southern cities. 



