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poorer in quality. It is used for railroad ties and rough timbers, but 

 it is not so durable as the red oak. 



The scarlet oak is a much smaller tree than either the red or the black 

 oak and it is almost always found growing on sandy or gravelly soils. 

 Its form is not good enough to make it an important timber tree. 



The two scrub oaks, which are really little more than shrubs, cover 

 vast areas that have been burned over and are often the obstacle to having 

 better trees on this kind of land. It is better, however, to have them 

 growing on the land than to have nothing at all, for in the latter case the 

 soil might be washed away by heavy rains; and perhaps we shall be able 

 to start more desirable kinds of trees where the scrub oaks are now grow- 

 ing, taking advantage of the protection that they afford. 



KEY TO THE COMMON OAKS OF NEW YORK 



A. Acorns maturing in one season; leaves with rounded lobes and 

 rounded sinuses WHITE OAKS 



1 . Margin of leaf merely wavy-toothed, not cut so deeply as to be 



called lobed 



(a) Margin finely wavy-toothed Chestnut oak 



(b) Margin coarsely wavy-toothed, more pointed than in 



(a) Swamp white oak 



2. Margin of leaf distinctly lobed; one pair of broad sinuses 



cutting nearly to the midrib of the leaf, so that the upper 

 part of the leaf is much heavier and broader-looking than the 



lower part. Acorn with a mossy cup Bur oak, or 



Mossy-cup oak 



3. Margin of leaf distinctly lobed sometimes very deeply cut, 



with broad, sinuses 



(a) Lobes usually seven or nine in number; acorns pointed; 



cup enclosing not more than one fourth of the 

 nut White oak 



(b) Lobes usually five in number; acorns not so pointed, and 



cup enclosing one third to one half of the nut . . Post oak 

 A A. Acorns maturing in two seasons; leaves with pointed, bristle- 

 tipped lobes and rounded sinuses BLACK OAKS 



i. Leaves green on both sides 



(a) Sinuses very broad, broader than the lobes between 



them 



(i) Acorn small and flat, the nut almost hemi- 

 spherical. Usually found growing in moist, 

 rich soil on the banks of streams or the borders 

 of swamps Pin oak 



