a flat base, and 



usually y A 



to 1% 



inche 



s long. 



The base is 



surrounded by a 



flat saucer- 



shaped 



cup, i 



ivhich is 



; hairy on the 



inside. 













The red oak 



is found growing v 



rild from Ne 



:w Brunswick 



to Georgia and westward. 



. It is 





mon throughout the 



Hudson Valley. 













Swamp Oak Quercus palustris 



The coarse, rough wood of this oak make it undesirable 

 for the fine work for which the wood of the red oak is used, 

 and consequently it is used mostly for making shingles and 

 clap-boards, and in rough construction work. On the whole 

 it is a smaller tree, and has a more restricted distribution, 

 although it is exceedingly common throughout the Hudson 

 Valley. 



The reddish, close bark is often scaly and split into small 

 plates which are flattened against the trunk. The greenish 

 young twigs turn reddish-brown when old. The blade of 

 the leaf is oblong in general outline, but the bristle-tipped 

 lobes divide it almost to the center. At its base the leaf- 

 blade is narrowly or sometimes broadly wedge-shaped. The 

 drooping lower branches, especially in older trees, are exceed- 

 ingly characteristic. 



The widely cultivated swamp oak has acorns decidedly dif- 

 ferent from those of the red oak. They are short-stalked, 

 solitary or in small clusters, and nearly hemispherical; 

 scarcely ever more than y 2 inch in diameter. The cup en- 

 closes only about one quarter of the acorn, and it is hairy on 

 the inside. (Plate 139.) 



Black Oak Quercus velutina 



A conspicuous characteristic of the black oak serves as a 

 ready means of distinguishing it from all the other bristle- 

 tipped sorts. The inner bark, easily disclosed by cutting in 

 about an inch, is of a bright orange color. It is the titular 

 head of all the bristle-tipped kinds, as they are often col- 

 lectively known as the black oaks, and in this species the 



