124 THE BEFXH FAMILY. 



do not turn to those colours which are associated with either the red or the 

 pin oaks. As is true of nearly all oaks, with the exception of those belong- 

 ing to the group of so-called white oaks, this tree takes two years in which to 

 mature its acorns. After the little flower in the axils of the leaves has re- 

 ceived in early spring the pollen from the long swaying catkins, it rests, or 

 remains inactive over the winter, or until the next spring when other little 

 blossoms are beginning their work just where it left off. Then it suddenly 

 awakes to activity, grows steadily and by the autumn of the second year, 

 presents the ripened fruit. 



'' The pulpy acorn, ere it swells, contains 

 The oak's vast branches in its milky veins; 

 Each ravel'd bud, fine iilm and fibre-line 

 Traced with nice pencil on the small design." 



Q. pahistris, pin oak, water oak, or swamp Spanish oak thrives best in 

 soil that is subject to moisture and is distinctive from the ever pendulous 

 droop of its lower branches. Its rather small broadly ovate, or obovate 

 leaves are deeply pinnatifid into five to nine divergent lobes which at their 

 extremities are toothed and bristle-tipped. On their upper surfaces they are 

 lustrous. In the autumn of the second season the rather small acorns 

 mature. They grow in either a sessile way or on very short peduncles and 

 often their light brown nut with its thin shell is conspicuously striped. 

 When hung early in the spring with its long maize coloured catkins, and the 

 tender young leaves are unfolding the tree presents a stirring and attractive 

 sight. 



(2- coccinea, scarlet oak, is the one of the great order which turns in the 

 autumn to so glorious a tint of scarlet ; touches of it appearing first here, 

 then there as balls of fire on the landscape, until finally it spreads acres of 

 flame colour through the forests. Again in the spring when the young 

 leaves are unfolding it is a lively figure, for they too are highly coloured. 

 The lobes of these leaves are lanceolate, toothed and tipped with bristles. 

 On both sides in age they are smooth and lustrous. The rather large acorns 

 are partly covered by the scaly, top-shaped cup while the kernel is light 

 coloured and has a bitter flavour. Another means of distinguishing this 

 oak is that its inner bark is reddish. 



O. rubra, red oak, has its crown clothed with large obovate and dull 

 green leaves which are pinnatifid, but have not their lobes so deeply cut as 

 those of the scarlet oak, and which near the base greatly decrease in size. 

 They are, however, very variable. But always by the acorns the tree can 

 be known. When mature, which they do not become until the second 

 season, they are about an inch and a quarter high with a very flat, saucer- 



