182 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



upland, its sturdy form adorns the landscape. 



* The Oak when living, monarch of the wood ; 

 The English Oak, which dead, commands the flood.' 



The leaves of our two species of native Oak, 

 though very similar in form and general out- 

 line, differ by distinctly-marked characteristics. 

 The leaf of the Wavy-leaved Oak (Quercus pedun- 

 culata) is known most readily by the entire or 

 partial absence of a leaf-stem which, however, is 

 distinctly possessed by that of its congener the 

 Flat-leaved Oak (Quercus sessili flora). But though 

 the first-named species has no leaf-stem it has a 

 fruit-stem, whilst the latter, though having stems 

 for its leaves, has either no steins or very imper- 

 fect ones for its acorns. The waviness of its leaf 

 surfaces and leaf margins has given origin to the 

 specific name of Quercus pedunculata, and this 

 waviness gives a rugged and somewhat wrinkled 

 look to its leaves, whose large-lobed margins are 

 less regular and symmetrical than are those of the 

 larger, glossier, and handsomer leaves of the Flat- 

 leaved Oak. The venation, too, like the general 

 form and contour, is more symmetrical in 

 the stemmed than in the stemless species. But, 



