OAK FAMILY 



Wood. Pale reddish brown, sapwood lighter ; heavy, hard, 

 coarse-grained, checks badly in drying ; used for shingles and 

 sometimes in construction. Sp. gr., 0.7529; weight of cu. ft., 

 46.92 Ibs. 



Winter Buds.l^\g\i\. brown, ovate, acute, one-eighth inch long. 

 Leaves. Alternate, oblong or obovate, four to six inches long, 

 one to two inches wide, wedge-shaped or rounded at base, acute or 

 rounded at apex, sometimes entire or with undulated margins, some- 

 times more or less three-lobed. They come out of the bud involute, 

 bright red, covered with rusty down above and white tomentum be- 

 low. When full grown are dark green, smooth 

 and shining above, pale green or pale brown, 

 downy below ; midribs stout yellow, grooved 

 above, primary veins slender. In autumn they 

 become dark red above, pale beneath, midribs 

 darken, then the leaf. Petioles stout, hairy, 

 flattened, grooved. Stipules about one-half 

 inch long, caducous. 



Flowers. May, when leaves are half grown. 

 Staminate flowers borne on tomentose aments 

 two to three inches long. Bracts linear-lanceo- 

 late. Calyx pale yellow, downy, four-lobed ; 

 stamens four to five ; anthers yellow. Pistillate 

 Shingle Oak, Queens Jowers borne on slender tomentose peduncles. 

 imbricaria Acorns Involucral scales are downy, about as long as 

 yj to ^/. the calyx lobes ; stigmas short, reflexed, green- 



ish-yellow. 



Acorns. Ripen in autumn of second year ; stalked, solitary or in 

 pairs ; nut almost spherical, one-half to two-thirds inch long ; cup 

 embraces one-half to one-third nut, is cup-shaped covered with light 

 red brown, downy scales, rounded or acute at apex. Kernel very 

 bitter. 



The Shingle Oak has a smooth bark and for three-fourths of its height is laden 

 with branches. It has an uncouth form when bare in winter, but is beautiful in 

 summer when clad in its thick tufted foliage. The leaves are long, lanceolate, 

 entire, and of a shining green. MICHAUX. 



The leaves of Laurel Oak or Shingle Oak are very narrow, almost linear at 

 first with their edges so straightly revolute that they almost touch each other. 

 They are slightly hairy, the ground color yellowish green with a purple tinge. 

 The fresh twigs are flushed with red on the upper side where most exposed to 

 the light. The young leaves stand out stiffly from the ends of the branchlets, 

 studding them with sharply outlined stellate clusters. Being so narrow the 

 foliage is very open and one can see through the tree top in almost any direc- 

 tion so that the tree has an appearance quite distinct from other oaks. 



Garden and Forest. 



374 



