OAK FAMILY 



Wood. Pale brown, sapwood the same ; h 



tough, coarse-grained, checks in drying. Used in construction, in- 

 terior finish of houses, carriage and boat building, agricultural im- 

 plements, railway ties, fuel and fencing. Sp. gr., 0.7662 ; weight 

 of cu. ft., 47.75 Ibs. 



Winter Buds. Pale chestnut brown, hairy, ovate, one-fourth of 

 an inch long. 



Leaves. Alternate, five to six inches long, two to four inches 

 broad, obovate or oblong-obovate, gradually narrowed and wedge- 

 shaped at base, margin coarsely sinuate-dentate or sometimes 

 almost pinnately lobed, apex rounded, sometimes acute ; mid- 

 rib stout, pale, rounded above ; primary veins conspicuous. 

 They come out of the bud convolute, pale bronze green, hairy 

 above, coated below with silvery tomentum ; when full grown 

 are thick, bright yellow green above, pale green, downy, often sil- 

 very white, below. In autumn they turn dull yellow bronze. 

 Petioles short, stout, grooved and flattened. Stipules linear, brown, 

 caducous. 



Flowers. May, when leaves are half grown. Staminate flowers 

 are borne in hairy aments three to four inches long ; calyx yel- 

 lowish-green, hairy, five to nine-lobed ; lobes narrow, acute, short- 

 er than the stamens ; filaments slender, anthers yellow. Pistillate 

 flowers are borne on tomentose or long peduncles, in few-flowered 

 spikes ; involucral scales covered with thick rusty tomentum ; stig- 

 mas bright red. 



Acorns. Annual, on long peduncles, often in pairs. Nut pale 

 chestnut brown, oval, broad at base, pubescent at apex, an inch 

 to an inch and a half long; cup, cup- 

 shaped, light brown and downy with- 

 in, chestnut brown without, roughened 

 toward the base by the thickened tips 

 of the acute scales, higher on the cup 

 these are small, crowded, often free, 

 and sometimes form a fringe about the 

 rim. Kernel, white, sweet. 



Unlike the White Oak whose 

 leaves unfold a beautiful red, those 

 of the Swamp White come out a 

 bronze green ; their autumnal tint 



Swamp White Oak, Quercus 



piatanoides. Acorns .' to is a dull yellow without a gleam of 

 '*' lon s- red ; this quickly changes to a pale 



yellow brown. 



The famous Wadsworth oak, so named from the estate on 

 which it grew, was a Swamp White Oak. It stood for many 

 348 



