The Oaks 



way to tell the two species apart at any time of year by the aid of a 

 pocket knife. 



Scarlet Oak (Quercus coccinea, Muench.) Slender, sym- 

 metrical tree, 70 to 160 feet high, with graceful, curving branches 

 and twigs, tapering trunk and round head. Eark brown or grey, 

 rough, scaly, shallowly fissured; inner layers reddish; twigs 

 green, scurfy, becoming red and smooth. Wood pale brownish red, 

 hard, coarse grained, strong, heavy, of rapid growth. Buds 

 pointed, hairy at tip, small, reddish. Leaves oval or obovate, 

 thin, smooth, shining above, paler beneath, sometimes hairy 

 tufted on veins, 3 to 6 inches long, 2 to 5 inches broad, with 5 to 

 7 spreading bristly pointed and subdivided lobes, with deep, 

 rounded sinuses between; autumn colour scarlet; petioles slender, 

 long. Flowers staminate catkins slender, reddish before m.aturity ; 

 pistillate with long stigmas bright red. Acorns biennial, i^ to J 

 inch long, half covered by short-stalked cup, smooth, triangular, 

 close-pressed scales, rounding in at the top; kernel white, moder- 

 ately bitter. Preferred habitat, dry, fertile loam. Distribution, 

 Maine to Florida, west to Minnesota, Nebraska and Missouri. 

 Best development in lower valley of Ohio River. Uses: A 

 favourite ornamental oak in this country and in Europe. Lumber 

 used for same purposes as that of Q. rubra. 



The splendour of our autum.nal forests owes much to the 

 foliage of the scarlet oak. The tree blazes like a torch against the 

 duller reds and browns in the woods, and often keeps its brilliancy 

 until after snow covers the ground. 



There is no reason for confusing the black, red and pin oaks 

 with this species. They are all heavy and coarse beside it. 

 Their leaves are leathery compared with the papery thinness of 

 these. In summer the scarlet oak lifts its young shoots, delicately 

 pink above the last year's growth, and waves them like long, 

 tapering plumes, set with skeleton leaves. Break a twig, and the 

 smoothness and delicacy of the leaves strike you. Just a pale 

 trace of fuzziness remains along the veins on the under 

 side. The wide, rounded sinuses are cut nearly to the 

 midrib, and the leaf flutters airily on a long petiole. The 

 acorn differs from the black oak's in having its cup drawn 

 tightly in at the top. 



Though we have planted this tree less often than the red 

 '^ak and pin oak in this country, it is coming to be recognised as 



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