i88 



TREES GROWING IN RICH SOIL. 



North Carolina, there is standing a tulip tree that is thought 

 to be the largest one in America. In girth it is thirty-one feet 

 at a distance of ten feet from the ground, and it stands up- 

 wards of one hundred and fifty feet high. In that rugged 

 place, at an elevation of three thousand feet above the sea 

 level, it raises a clear and straight shaft which is also hollow. 

 What is the tree's history, no one knows. 



WHITE OAK. (Plate XCIX.) 



Quircus alba. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME*OF BLOOM 



Beech. Head, broad; 60-80 feet or Maine to Ontario and May, June, 



branches, spreading. higher. southward and westward. Fruit: Sept., Oct. 



Bark: light grey or nearly white ; less rough than that of most oaks ; often 

 scaly in old trees and breaking off in thin sheets. Leaves : 4 simple ; alternate ; 

 obovate ; pinnately-lobed, wedge-shaped at the base and with from three to 

 nine lobes ; broad and rounded, with coarsely notched or entire edges. Sinu- 

 ses : narrow ; rounded. Bright green above, paler below; at maturity glabrous ; 

 variable. Acorns : axillary ; growing in pairs on short peduncles, or sessile. 

 Cup : saucer-shaped ; shallow; rough, with appressed scales. Nut: green, 

 turning to chestnut-brown ; lustrous ; oblong, from three-quarters to an inch 

 long ; edible ; sweet. 



The ancients made oak trees 

 objects of love and reverence, and 

 they also attributed to them the 

 mystic power to foretell or advise 

 about coming events. The oldest 

 oracle of the Greeks was that of 

 Jupiter at Dodona in Epirus. It 

 was believed that two black doves 

 simultaneously flew from Thebes in 

 Egypt. One alighted in an oak 

 grove at Dodona and in a human 

 voice proclaimed that an oracle of 

 Jupiter should there be established 

 by the people. The other dove 

 carried a similar message to the temple of Jupiter Ammon in 

 the Lybian oasis. Accordingly, the oracles were set up, and 



Qu/rcus dlba. 



