TREES GROWING IN SANDY SOIL. 243 



the swamp white oak, and its bark is pale and scaly. Its 

 acorns are among those that require two years in which to 

 ripen. 



The reddish brown wood of the Spanish oak, although strong, 

 is not regarded as being of any especial value excepting for 

 fuel. Its bark contains tannin and properties which are of 

 value medicinally. 



SCARLET OAK. {Plate CXXXII.) 

 Quircus coccinea. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Beech. Head, narrow, 5090 feet or New England south- May, June. 



open. higher. ward and westward. Fruit: Sept., Oct. 



Bark: greyish brown; rough. Inner bark : reddish. Leaves: large; sim- 

 ple; alternate; slender-petioled; broadly oval; often squared at the base and 

 having from five to nine lobes, which frequently extend to within half an inch 

 of the midrib; toothed and bristle-tipped at their ends; sinuses, broadly 

 rounded. Bright green and lustrous above, lighter beneath, with slender, 

 yellow midrib; glabrous. Flowers: monoecious; yellowish green; the stam- 

 inate ones growing in slender catkins, the pistillate ones, bright red and 

 clustered on pubescent peduncles. Acorns: sessile or growing on peduncles; 

 quite large. Cup: scaly, with conical base. Nut: one-half to three-quarters 

 of an inch long; rounded. Kernel: white; bitter. 



All minor characteristics of the scarlet oak seem to be 

 immersed in the brilliant bright red of its autumn foliage, the 

 most exquisite tint displayed by any one of the family. But 

 those that have watched its unfolding leaves in the spring 

 know that they too were red when they first peeped shyly out 

 at the world, and it therefore does not seem strange that when 

 they are about to die they should return to their early convic- 

 tions. The tree at all times is a charmingly gay feature 

 of the landscape and when seen must ever surpass the 

 accounts that have been written about it. In sandy or light, 

 dry soil it grows, often beside the black oak, and it is much 

 seen and desired in cultivation. 



The custom of the oak family is for its pistillate flowers to 

 grow in an involucre that appears like a bud, and it is this 

 involucre which later becomes the cup, or cupule. When the 



