134 HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



ing brandies fully half an inch long, the others much 

 smaller. 



Habitat and range. E-ich woods; from New England to 

 the mountains of Georgia ; west to Minnesota, Kansas, and 

 Arkansas. 



11. The Bitternut, or Swamp Hickory. Gary a amara. 

 Tree with a tall, straight trunk ; fifty to seventy-five feet 



high ; with stout, spreading limbs ; and slender, stiff, upright 

 branches ; forming a broad head, if not crowded. Bark 

 light brown to light gray, broken into thin scales. Branch- 

 lets the first winter, orange-brown, lustrous, with large leaf- 

 scars, ultimately light gray. Terminal buds bright yellow- 

 green and large. 



Habitat and range. Moist soil ; from New England to 

 Florida ; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, and Texas. 



12. The Bur Oak, Mossy-cup Oak. Quercus macrocarpa. 

 About eighty feet high, but often much smaller. Stout 



branches, some growing nearly at right angles from the 

 stem, forming an open irregular head, when the tree is 

 young, and a massive, round-topped crown in older trees. 

 In the forest the crown is much narrower. Bark one to two 

 inches thick, deeply furrowed and broken into irregularly 

 light brown or gray scales on the surface. The branchlets 

 are stout and marked with pale lenticels, and are at first 

 covered with a soft felt. When they are from two to four 

 years old, thick, corky wings frequently begin to develop. 



13. The Scarlet Oak. Quercus coccinea. 



A tree sometimes seventy feet high, but usually not aver- 

 aging more than thirty feet, with comparatively small 

 branches, which generally form a somewhat narrow, open 

 head. The bark of the trunk is almost black outside, but 

 red internally, and is divided by shallow fissures into irregu- 



