32 SHADE-TREES IN TOWNS AND CITIES 



ten. It is Twelfth Street, between North and South B 

 Streets, and is planted with red oaks, the gorgeous beauty 

 of which cannot fail to impress itself on the mind of every 

 observer. See Plate 9. 



All prejudices against the oak as a shade-tree must dis- 

 appear on beholding that street. The red oak grows faster 

 than any other native oak, and in a greater variety of soils. 

 It forms a round or oval shaped head, and its large, dark 

 green leathery leaves give it a richness possessed by few 

 other trees. There is no American tree more prized in 

 Europe than the red oak, which has been cultivated there 

 for two centuries. It is the brilliant foliage of the red oak 

 which is conspicuous in the English parks in the autumn, 

 when the native species of that country fall without the 

 bright coloring which we always expect in our autumn 

 woods. 



In May the red oak is fairly draped with the long yellow 

 catkins, forming the staminate flowers. The pistillate flow- 

 ers are extremely tiny, and these, after being fertilized, 

 mature into acorns the following year. 



Scarlet Oak {Quercus coccinea Muench.). While the pin 

 oak and the red oak are the trees most extensively planted 

 as shade-trees, the scarlet oak is coming to be recognized 

 as superior to both, while in hardiness and rapidity of 

 growth it is equal to either. When growing in the open the 

 scarlet oak forms a round, domelike head. The leaves are 

 a bright shiny green, borne on slender petioles that cause 

 them to respond to every breeze. The splendor of our 

 autumnal forests owes much to the color of the scarlet oaks. 

 The tints of other oaks are beautiful, but they are pale 

 before the gleam of the scarlet. 



White Oak {Quercus alba Linn.). The white oak is the 



