Scarlet Oak 



293 



or ovoid -oblong, 12 to 14 mm. long, light brown; shell thin and downy inside; 

 cup hemispheric, 9 to 12 mm. across, brown and hairy inside, embracing about 

 one third of the nut, covered by ovate, blunt, hairy crisp-margined scales, the 

 upper smaller and forming a slight fringe around the rim of the cup. 



The hard wood is close-grained, reddish brown; its specific gravity is about 

 0.91. 



10. SCARLET OAK Quercus coccinea Muenchausen 



A tree preferring sandy, dry soil, from Maine to Minnesota, North Carolina 

 and Missouri, attaining a maximum height of 50 meters, with a trunk diameter 

 of 1.5 m. It is also called Red oak. Black oak, and Spanish oak. 



The lower and middle branches are widely spreading, the upper ones ascend- 

 ing. The bark is about 2 cm. thick, 

 shallowly fissured into irregular ridges, 

 reddish internally, Hght brown and scaly 

 on the outside; on younger stems it is 

 smoother and brown. The twigs are 

 scurfy hairy, soon becoming hght green 

 and shining, red or orange and finally 

 dark brown. The winter buds are nar- 

 rowly ovoid, about 6 mm. long, brown 

 and somewhat hairy. The leaves are red 

 when unfolding, pale hairy above, woolly 

 beneath, becoming green and shining as 

 the flowers appear; they are oval, oblong 

 or obovate in outhne, i to 2 dm. long, the 

 5 to 7 lobes ascending or spreading, 

 slightly toothed and bristle-tipped, the 

 sinuses wide and rounded ; they are widely 

 tapering or rounded at the base, thin and 

 firm, deep bright green, smooth and very 

 shining, with a slender yellow midrib above, paler and somewhat shining, often 

 with tufts of rusty hairs at the axils of the larger veins beneath. They become 

 brilliantly scarlet in the autumn before falling; the leaf-stalk is slender and round, 

 2 to 6 cm. long. The flowers appear when the leaves have about one half un- 

 folded, the staminate in rather numerous, smooth, slender, many-flowered catkins 

 7.5 to ID cm. long, their calyx hairy, its 4 or 5 lobes ovate and sharp-pointed; 

 stamens usually 4, exserted; anthers ovate, sharp-pointed and hght yellow. The 

 pistillate flowers are on hairy peduncles up to 12 mm. long, bright red; styles 

 elongated, spreading or recurved. The fruit, ripening in the autumn of the second 

 season, is sohtary, or 2 together, sessile or nearly so; nut ovoid or oblong-ovoid, 

 from I to 2 cm. long, hght reddish brown, sometimes striped; shell thin, thickly 

 woolly inside; cup top-shaped, constricted at the base, 1.5 to 2 cm. across, thin 



Fig. 245. Scarlet Oak. 



