generally concur, and each, as he gazes on a fine old tree, feels 

 the smouldering fires of ancestral tree worship flame once more in 

 his breast. There is something in Anglo-Saxon blood that 

 remembers. 



We shall know the white oak in the winter woods by its 

 pale grey bark, with shallow fissures and scaly ridges. It is a 

 tall, narrow-headed tree where it is crowded among its forest 

 neighbours. In the open it has a sturdy, low-branched trunk 

 that flares into buttresses at the base and supports a rounded 

 dome of great breadth and dignity. The mighty arms reach 

 toward the horizon or the sky, breaking into tortuous limbs and 

 these into dense thickets of twigs. Over these is the luxuriant 

 thatch of fingered leaves, through whose narrow sinuses the 

 light sifts so freely that even the inner framework of the dome 

 bears leafy twigs. The characteristic arrangement of these 

 leaves is a tuft of them on the end of a twig, spread out like the 

 divisions of a horse-chestnut leaf. 



In spring a shimmering veil of rose and silver covers the grey 

 old tree. The edges are fringed with the yellow tassels of the 

 staminate flowers. From the axils of the opening leaves the 

 forked tongues of the pistillate flowers are thrust out into the 

 pollen-laden air. 



All summer the leaves are bright green with pale linings. In 

 autumn the red comes back again with bluish tones that blend 

 into beautiful vinous reds and violet purple. Gradually the 

 colour fades out, but the leaves usually hang on until pushed off, 

 even as late as the following April. 



We shall find no acorns on white oak trees in winter, for 

 they mature in a single season, and fall without delay. The 

 crop is usually a light one, and it is hard to find acorns even under 

 the tree. The sweet-flavoured nut is a favourite food of animals, 

 wild and domestic. The Indians and the early colonists ate them. 

 These shrewd and provident ancestors of ours discovered also 

 that this "ackorne" had other good qualities. "By boyling it 

 long, it giveth an oyle which they keep to supple their joynts." 

 They skimmed this oil from the water before they ate the acorns 

 in the pot. 



White-oak lumber is becoming rare and correspondingly 

 high priced. Its quality is of the first order. Clear, quarter- 

 sawed oak exhibits a higher percentage of the "mirrors" (pith 



'99 



