96 TIMBER TREES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



Piedmont plateau region. Sprouts grow readily from the stump, 

 but seldom reach a large size. 



The leaves are rather rigid, downy beneath, and with large reg- 

 ular, rounded teeth. The large sweet edible acorns are set in 

 shallow cups which are roughened with acute coarse scales. The 

 brown winter-buds are large, smooth, and pointed. There are 

 many deep lateral roots. 



' The wood is heavy, hard, very strong, tough, close-grained, 

 compact, easily split, and very durable in contact with the soil ; 

 light brown in color ; the sapwood darker. It is used for agricult- 

 ural implements, cooperage, wheel stock, baskets, fencing, fuel, 

 and construction. In the eastern counties a small quantity of the 

 timber has been cut for local uses. 



Quercus virginiana, Miller.* 

 (LIVE OAK.) 



A large evergreen tree, with dark, deeply furrowed bark and 

 gray branches, a short body and a flat or spreading top, reaching 

 a height of 60 and a diameter of 7 feet; in the interior of Texas 

 often reduced to a shrub. (Plate VIII.) 



It is found near the coast from Virginia to southern Florida 

 and along the Gulf coast to Mexico, extending through western 

 Texas and the valley of the Red river, the Apache and the Gaud- 

 alupe mountains, and into Mexico, at elevations of six to eight 

 thousand feet, and in the island of Costa Rica; reaching its best 

 development in the south Atlantic states. 



In North Carolina it occurs near the coast on deep sandy soil 

 with the water and willow oaks, American olive, and southern lin. 

 North of Cape Hatteras it is a rare tree but south of that point it 

 becomes more abundant until, at the mouth of the Cape Fear river, 

 it forms with the palmetto a considerable part of the maritime 

 forest of Smith's island. (Fig. 22, p. 97.) 



The growth, particularly in youth, is very vigorous. Young 

 seedlings are common near old trees. Small trees sprout readily 

 from the stump. 



The evergreen leaves are thick, leathery, oblong and obtuse, 



*Quercus virens, Alton. 



