TREES GROWING IN DRY SOIL 283 



CHESTNUT OAK. YELLOW OAK. (Plate CLV.) 

 Quircus acuminata. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Beech. Tall, straight: head, 40-80-160 feet. Vermont to northern May, June. 



narrow. Ala. and westward. Fruit: Oct., Nov 



Bark: light grey; broken into thin flakes. Branchlets ; marked with pale 

 lenticels. Leaves: five to seven inches long ; simple ; alternate; petioled; at 

 most an inch long ; lanceolate, or obovate with taper-pointed apex and pointed, 

 wedged-shaped or blunt base; sharply and evenly serrate. Sinuses ; rounded. 

 The veins extending from the midrib to the summit of the teeth. Yellow- 

 green and glabrous above, silvery and slightly downy underneath. Staminate 

 flowers : growing in catkins from three to four inches long. Pistillate ones : in 

 short, sessile spikes. Acorns : small; sessile. Cup : round; broad; thin; the 

 scales closely compressed. Nut: light brown; ovate; about one -third covered 

 by the cup ; edible ; sweet. 



Those that have paid little or no attention to the trees, ex- 

 cepting perhaps to regard them as affording a gracious and 

 wholesome shade, are invariably surprised when their interest 

 in them is quickened to see how exquisite are many of the 

 blossoms with which they are hung in the spring. Then it is a 

 revelation that the long yellow clusters, looking like bits of 

 string, which dangle from this great oak are in reality its stami- 

 nate flowers. In this way many of them grow snugly together. 

 The pistillate blossoms are congregated in more compact clus- 

 ters, and, as in many monoecious trees, they are located near 

 the tips of the lower boughs. From the top-most branches 

 the staminate ones sway. That their respective positions are 

 such is another illustration of Nature's theory that nothing is 

 insignificant. When the breezes bend the tree-tops the pollen 

 is shaken out, and its natural fall is then downward upon the 

 pistillate ones which eagerly arrest its flight. 



This chestnut oak is a beautiful and mightytree, with a pale, 

 almost white bark. Its long leaves hang closely to the branches 

 and resemble, in general outline, those of the true chestnut. 

 That is when it grows in the Atlantic states, where it is some- 

 what rare and local. West of the Alleghanies it inhabits rich 

 bottom lands. Its leaves then are very variable. In their 

 broadest forms, with their teeth considerably rounded, they 



