282 



The Oaks 



Fig. 234. — Red Oak. 



tree. The bark is up to 4 cm. thick, shallowly furrowed into low rounded 



ridges slightly broken into close plates, dark 

 reddish brown; on younger trunks and on 

 branches it is smooth and gray to brown. The 

 twigs are slender, Ught green and shining, be- 

 coming dark green or reddish, and finally dark 

 brown. The winter buds are ovoid, 6 mm. 

 long, narrowed upward to a sharp point and 

 light brown. The leaves are oval, ovate or 

 obovate in outline, 10 to 20 cm. long, the 5 to 7 

 lobes ascending, entire or with a few bristle- 

 tipped teeth, their sinuses rounded and ex- 

 tending about half-way to the midrib, base 

 wedge-shaped or obtuse. They are thin but 

 firm, dull green, Uttle shining, with prominent 

 yellow, or often red midrib above, pale and 

 smooth, except for tufts of hairs in the axils of 

 the veins, and with a yellow midrib beneath, 

 turning dull yellow or Ught brown and fall 

 ofif early in autumn. The leaf-stalk is 3 to 5 

 cm. long, usually red or yellow. The flowers appear when the leaves are about 

 half unfolded, the staminate in clustered slender hairy catkins about i dm. long, 

 scattered on short pedicels; the calyx is deeply lobed, with 4 or 5 rounded lobes; 

 the stamens 4 or 5, exserted, their anthers large, oblong, notched, and smooth. 

 The pistillate flowers are few together on short smooth stalks; involucre-scales 

 ovate, mostly blunt, reddish brown; floral bracts longer than the scales of the 

 involucre; calyx-lobes lanceolate, sharp-pointed; styles 3, spreading, Ught green. 

 The fruit ripens in the autumn of the second season, one or two together, on 

 stalks about 6 nun. long; its nut is ovoid, 2.5 to 3 cm. long, flat at the base, tipped 

 at apex, the interior of the shell velvety; cup flat, saucer-shaped, 2.5 to 3.5 cm. 

 across, hairy within, Ught reddish brown outside, embracing about one fifth of the 

 nut, the scales closely imbricated, sUghtly hairy. 



The wood is hard, strong, coarse-grained, Ught reddish brown; its specific gravity 

 is about 0.66. It checks much in drying and is used in construction work, for fur- 

 niture, and in general carpentry. 



A handsome tree and greatly admired in Europe. It is a rapid grower and 

 deserves to be more widely planted for shade than it has been. 



Quercus rubra runcinata A. de CandoUe, from near St. Louis, Missouri, is sup- 

 posed to be a hybrid of this and the Spanish oak, Q. triloba Michaux; it possesses 

 features of both. Another supposed hybrid, also from Missouri, may be a cross 

 with the Shingle oak, Q. imbricaria Michaux, as it possesses characters found in 

 both species. 



