OAK FAMILY 



Acorns. Ripen in the autumn of the second year ; solitary or in 

 pairs, sessile or stalked ; nut oblong-ovoid with broad base, full, 

 sometimes narrowed at apex, three-fourths to one and one-fourth 

 of an inch long ; cup, saucer-shaped, usually covers only the base, 

 sometimes one-fourth of the nut, thick, shallow, reddish brown, 

 somewhat downy within, covered with thin imbricated reddish 

 brown scales. Kernel white and very bitter. 



What gnarled stretch, what depth of shade is his ! 

 There needs no crown to mark the forest's king. 

 How in his leaves outshines full summer's bliss ! 

 Sun, storm, rain, dew, to him their tribute bring. 



How towers he, too, amid the billowed snows, 

 An unquelled exile from the summer's throne, 

 Whose plain, uncinctured front more kingly shows, 

 Now that the obscuring courtier leaves are flown. 



JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 



What delicate fans are the great Red Oak leaves now just developed, so thin 

 and of so tender a green ! They hang loosely flaccidly down at the mercy of the 

 wind, like a new-born butterfly or dragon fly. A strong cold wind would blacken 

 and tear them. They have not yet been hardened by exposure, these raw and 

 tender lungs of the tree. HENRY D. THOREAU. 



The Red Oak finds its finest development in the states 

 lying north of the Ohio river ; on the southern shore of Lake 

 Erie it becomes a beautiful tree with a massive trunk, a mag- 

 nificent rounded head and smooth clean-cut limbs which 

 strike out from the trunk at large angles. The bark is 

 smooth ; even in old age the trunk never becomes extremely 

 rough and the limbs are always smooth. In color it is a 

 brownish gray until the tree is old, when it becomes dark 

 brown. 



The leaves vary from oblong to obovate and are of two 

 typical forms. The full leaf with the shallow sinuses is 

 the youthful form although old trees are often found bearing 

 it. That with the deeper sinuses is perhaps the more common 

 form. Often the petiole and midvein are a rich red color in 

 midsummer and early autumn, though this is not true of all 

 red oaks. The leaves come out of the bud a lovely pink 

 and white, in midsummer they become a deep shining green 

 and in autumn they turn a rich, dark, purplish red. The en- 



352 



