QUERCUS ALBA, L. 75 



WHITE OAKS. 



Leaves with obtuse or rounded lobes or teeth ; cup-scales 

 thickened or knobbed at base ; stigmas sessile or nearly so ; 

 fruit maturing the first year. 



BLACK OAKS. 



Leaves with pointed or bristle-tipped lobes and teeth ; 

 cup-scales flat ; stigmas on spreading styles ; fruit maturing 

 the second year. 



Quercus alba, L. 

 WHITE OAK. 



Habitat and Range. Light loams, sandy plains, and gravelly 

 ridges, often constituting extensive tracts of forest. 



Quebec and Ontario. 



Maine, southern sections ; New Hampshire, most 

 abundant eastward ; in the Connecticut valley confined to 

 the hills in the immediate vicinity of the river, extending 

 up the tributary streams a short distance and disappearing 

 entirely before reaching the mouth of the Passumpsic (W. F. 

 Flint) ; Vermont, common west of the Green mountains, 

 less so in the southern Connecticut valley (Fiord of Ver- 

 mont, 1900) ; Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, 

 common. 



South to the Gulf of Mexico ; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, 

 Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas. 



Habit. A tree of the first rank, 50-75 feet high and 1-6 

 feet in diameter above the swell of the roots, exhibiting 

 considerable diversity in general appearance, trunk some- 

 times dissolving into branches like the American elm, and 

 sometimes continuous to the top. The finest specimens 

 in open land are characterized by a rather short, massive 

 trunk, with stout, horizontal, far-reaching limbs, conspicuously 

 gnarled and twisted in old age, forming a wide-spreading, 



