TREES GROWING IN RICH SOIL. 



191 



RED OAK. (Plate C.) 



Quircus rubra. 



FAMILY SHAPE 



Beech. Round-topped: 

 branches, stout. 



HEIGHT 

 50-80- 1 50 feet. 



RANGE 



New Brunswick south- 

 ward and westward. 



TIME OF BLOOM 



May, June. 

 Fruit: Oct., Nov. 



Bark : reddish brown, smooth for an oak, but rough and broken into scale- 

 like plates. Leaves : simple ; alternate ; with smooth, yellowish-green petioles 

 from one to one and a half inches long and oblong or obovate, rather rounded 

 or wedge-shaped at the base and having from nine to thirteen lobes which are 

 irregularly toothed and bristle-tipped at the ends ; the sinuses between them 

 narrowed, rounded and extending about half-way to the midrib. Dark green 

 and glabrous on the upper surface, pale yellow-green below with rust-coloured 

 hairs in the angle of the ribs; thin. Statninate flowers: growing in long, pubes- 

 cent catkins. Pistillate ones : growing on glabrous peduncles. Acorns : grow- 

 ing on a short, thick neck or almost sessile. Cup : flat ; saucer-shaped ; finely 

 scaled. Nut ; sometimes an inch long ; ovoid ; bitter. 



When the red oak is seen growing in favourable circum- 

 stances the effect that it produces is admirable. Usually 

 its foliage is dense, but about 

 it there is no semblance of 

 heaviness. So small a thing 

 as that the lobes of the leaves 

 are unequal in size and have 

 bristle-pointed teeth is quite 

 sufficient to give to the great 

 tree a light, pleasing appear- 

 ance. But in outline the 

 leaves are very variable. They 

 turn in the autumn to a deep 

 red or orange and are quite 

 without the brilliancy that is 

 associated with the scarlet 

 oak, page 244. The acorns 

 are a good index to the spe- 

 cies; for the nut looks wonder- 

 fully large and out of propor- 

 tion to the shallow cup. They 

 are among those that require 

 two years in which to mature 



Quercus rubra. 



The reddish-brown wood of 



