The Oaks 



The leaves are of unusual length and deeply cut into irregular 

 fingers, or broader lobes. Often two opposite sinuses, wider than 

 the rest, almost cut the leaf in two in the middle. Bright and 

 shining above, these leaves are woolly lined and thick. 



The acorns are very striking in appearance. The brown 

 nut is often 2 inches long and set in a thick, hairy cup, covered 

 with coarse, pointed scales that become elongated toward the 

 rim, and form a loose, fringed border. The nut is half covered by 

 the cup as a rule. Sometimes it is quite swallowed up in it. 

 From this the species is sometimes, but erroneously, called the 

 overcup oak. 



This tree is one of the most widely distributed and valuable 

 of North American oaks. It has an astonishing power of adapta- 

 tion to different regions and climates. It grows from Nova 

 Scotia to western Texas; there are forests of it in Winnipeg; 

 it forms the "oak openings" of Minnesota and Dakota. It 

 seems as much at home in the hot and arid stretches of the West 

 and Southwest as in the cold, damp air of the coast of New Eng- 

 land, or the fertile valley of the Ohio, where it reached nearly 

 200 feet in height in the virgin forests. 



The sturuiness of the bur oak, its rapid growth in good soil, 

 its rugged picturesqueness, winter and summer, all commend it 

 to planters. It is one of the most ornamental of American oaks 

 in cultivation; and the raising and transplanting of it are fairly 

 easy. People who do not plant oaks because they take so long to 

 become big trees miss much pleasure they have not counted on. 

 It may be children's children who see the aged tree, beautiful in 

 its expression of massiveness and rugged strength. But the 

 planter enjoys the grace of the sapling, the rich foliage of the 

 young tree which is always larger than on the old ones; and there 

 is very early seen in any bur oak the stocky build and the shaggy 

 bark that mark the adult tree. It grows rapidly, and soon blossoms 

 and fruits freely. Every year shows gains, and the cycle of the 

 year in the treetop is worthy of close attention. 



The wood of white oaks is of highest quality, the English 

 oak itself being one of this group. The bur oak is counted even 

 better than that of Quercus alba, when grown in rich soil. The 

 planting of bur oaks on the prairie is especially recommended by 

 those who understand the conditions prevailing there. It is 

 grown for shade and for lumber. 



