STUDIES OF LEAF AND TREE (PART II.) 



99 



its acorns are edible, and the tree holds its leaves all 

 winter. 



The Chestnut oak was referred to in Part I. of the 

 present series of articles, while the Pin oak has not yet 

 been mentioned beyond the matter of its classification. 

 Linnaeus named this species Quercus palustris, and it 

 has also been called the Spanish oak or rather the Swamp 

 oak. Several of its 

 characters are so dis- 

 tinctive that but lit- 

 tle trouble is experi- 

 enced in distinguish- 

 ing it from our oth- 

 er oaks. It is our 

 most abundant spe- 

 cies, lining some of 

 the handsomest 

 streets at the Na- 

 tional Capital ; and 

 in the winter time 

 one may easily rec- 

 ognize it by its dis- 

 tinctly pyrami dal 

 form. Its leaves, 

 which are scarlet in 

 the fall, vary in their 

 outlines to an enor- 

 mous extent. Some 

 of these variations 

 are seen in Fig. 26, 

 while thousands of 

 others might be 

 gathered, no two of 

 which would be 

 more alike. As to 

 their lobing, the sin- 

 uses may be 5 or 6 

 or 7, and sculpt quite 

 to the midrib. In 

 summer these leaves 

 are very shiny on 

 their upper surfaces 

 and rather dull on 

 the other side. The 

 acorns of the pin 

 oak are very bitter 

 to the taste ; they are 

 c h a r a c t erized by 

 very shallow cups, 

 hairy lined, and 

 thickly overlaid ex- 

 ternally with red- 

 dish-brown scales. They ripen during the fall of the 

 second year ; but it is an acorn that never seems to be 

 especially abundant. With respect to the distribution of 

 this oak, Gray. tells us that it is "found on low ground, 

 chiefly on the coastal plain and in the Mississippi Basin ; 

 Massachusetts to Virginia; west to Kansas and Ar- 

 kansas." Frequently it is planted as an ornamental tree 



A FINE BEECH TREE IN THE VERY EARLY FALL, JUST AS THE TREES COM- 

 MENCE TO "TURN." ROCK CREEK, NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK, WASHING- 

 TON, D. C. 



Fig. 33 On account of their being so carefully guarded and cared for, the trees of this 

 famous park stand among the handsomest in all the country round. Then, too, their beauty 

 is enhanced year after year. 



on lawns, and for its beauty and shade on city streets. 

 Pin oak shingles and clapboards for country houses are 

 held to be among the best for such purposes; the wood 

 is also used extensively in other ways for making bar- 

 rels, interior and exterior construction, and so on. It 

 wears splendidly, being very tough and hard, of a pale 

 brown shade, and a varigated, coarse grain, which 



takes a good finish. 

 "The leaf might 

 confuse us," says 

 Julia Rogers, "but the 

 pin oak tree tells its 

 name before one is 

 near enough to see 

 the leaf distinctly. 

 The tree has a broad 

 py r am i d al form, 

 with slender branch- 

 es stretched out hori- 

 zontally as far as 

 they can reach. The 

 spur-like little twigs 

 that cluster on the 

 branches throughout 

 the treetop are chok- 

 ed to death by be- 

 ing crowded, but 

 they remain the 

 "pins" that charac- 

 terize this species of 

 oak. When it gets 

 old, the pin oak loses 

 some of its symme- 

 try and beauty; it 

 holds on to its dead 

 branches, but there 

 is a dignity in its 

 bearing that is ad- 

 mirable, even in its 

 decline." 



One of the most 

 variable oaks we 

 have e s p e c i a lly 

 with respect to its 

 foliage is the Span- 

 ish oak (QUercus 

 falcata) ; this is the 

 Q. digitata of Sud- 

 worth, and the Q. 

 pagodaef olia of 

 Ashe. We find it 

 d i s t r i b uted from 

 New Jersey to Florida, and from southern Indiana to 

 Missouri and Texas, preferring dry or sandy soil. This 

 species is also variable with respect to its size, or it may 

 grow to be very large and tall, as was the case with the 

 one from which the acorns in Fig. 29 were taken. The 

 tree is most abundant in the southern part of its range, 

 particularly in the Carolinas, as well as in some of the 



