THE BEECH FAAULY. 



33 



tinguished by the glandular tips of their teeth. In May when the tree 

 blooms and the leaves are young and tender its slender maize coloured 

 aments add much to its beauty. The acorns, which are edible, mature in 

 the autumn of their hrst season. 



Q. Prinus, rock chestnut oak, or chestnut oak, bears the distinction of 

 having been one of the first American oaks to be known in Europe. It is 

 tall, usually from sixty to seventy feet high, or occasionally one hundred feet, 

 very vigorous and of majestic appearance. Along the rocky banks of 

 streams, or on dry hillsides through the Carolinas and in Tennessee it is 

 very abundant. The tree is, in fact, an Applachian one, although it occurs 

 as well northward. The distinguishable points of the leaves are their 

 oblong or broadly obovate outline ; their rounded or tapering bases and the 

 many coarse and crenate lobes of their margins. Above they are dark 

 green, glabrous and slightly lustrous while below they are pale and covered 

 with an ashy down. The acorns of this species have gracefully shaped 

 cups and nuts, rich in colour which arise three times as high as they. In 

 the tree's bark tannin is plentiful and as its wood shreds easily, the 

 negroes make it into baskets, or even brooms. 



Q. platanotdes, swamp white oak, belongs also to the group of chestnut 

 oaks and grows along borders of streams and in swamps. It is widely dis- 

 tributed, but does not form forests, growing mostly in groups among other 

 trees. From thirty to seventy feet or even higher it occurs and has a light 

 grey bark resembling, as is implied by the tree's specific name, platanus in 

 its manner of breaking into thin flakes. Another point of distinction is the 

 way the little branches droop from the limbs or even appear on the trunk. 

 The obovate and bluntly pointed leaves have wedge-shaped and entire bases 

 while along their margins they are coarsely toothed, the waves becoming 

 near the middle so large as to resemble small lobes. On their upper sur- 

 faces these leaves are dark green and smooth while below they are pale and 

 covered with a dense, silvery white pubescence. Commercially the wood 

 of this tree is not distinguished from that of Ouercus alba and Ouercus 

 macrocarpa. 



Q. p7-ino)des^ scrub chestnut or chinquapin oak. is a shrubby species 

 which usually grows from two to four feet high, or rarely reaches fifteen 

 feet. By stolons it spreads itself and thus forms thick clumps of growth, 

 occurring in sandy soil from Texas and Alabama as far northward as Maine. 

 Its leaves are obovate, coarsely toothed along the margins, and have on 

 their undersides a close grey tomentum. During the first season, the 

 acorns mature. 



