The Oaks 



hard, strong, tough, durable, close grained with large medullary 

 rays and spring wood ducts, separating it into annual layers. 

 Similar to other white-oak lumber. Buds pointed, \ inch long, 

 scaly, with red hairs. Leaves 6 to 8 inches long, broadly obovate, 

 regularly undulate on margins, sinuses equal to the lobes in 

 size and shape, shining, dark green above, pubescent, often 

 silvery white below. Crimson in autumn. Flowers with half- 

 grown leaves, March to May. Acorns annual, solitary or paired, 

 on short stem i to i^ inches long, oval, pointed, bright brown, 

 in shallow, scaly cup, which is flat bottomed and lined with down; 

 kernels sweetest of Eastern acorns, eaten by children, negroes and 

 domestic animals. Preferred habitat, swamps and bottom lands 

 liable to inundation. Distribution, northern Delaware to Florida; 

 west to Illinois, Missouri and Texas. Uses: Important timber 

 tree, lumber ranking with white oak. A handsome ornamental 

 tree, worthy of cultivation in wet ground. 



The common names of trees are interesting, always, and 

 often confusing. It is sometimes difficult to trace their origin 

 and to explain their meaning. This beautiful tree, the most 

 valuable annual-fruited oak of the Southeastern States, differs 

 from others of the group in that its wood separates like that of 

 the black ash into annual layers. The toughness and strength 

 of these sheets adapt them to basket making — the most durable 

 bushel baskets, china crates, etc., are made of strips of this oak. 

 It is easy to see why the name "basket oak" came into use. 

 But who shall explain the name "cow oak"? Perhaps it is 

 enough that the acorns are sweet and cows eat them. Perhaps 

 if I lived where the cow oak does I might give an answer that is 

 more than simply a guess. The basket oak is one of the best 

 mast trees in the country. The trees are very prolific, and each 

 year hogs are fattened upon the acorns wherever the trees are 

 common in the woods. 



There would be an appearance of heaviness, perhaps, in this 

 handsome oak, if it were not that the lustrous leaves are lined 

 with Oliver that seems to catch and hold the light, reflecting it to 

 the inrer parts of the trcetop. When the wind blows the contrast 

 of light and shade is strikingly beautiful. In many particulars 

 the basket oak resembles the swamp white oak, and some author- 

 ities hold that Quercus Michauxii is the Southern form of Quercus 

 platanoides, for their ranges meet and do not overlap. 



207 



