OAK FAMILY 



tire subject of spring and autumn tints is becoming more and 

 more interesting as it is more carefully studied. It is now 

 well understood that the frost is not a factor in the problem 

 and that both spring and autumn tints arise from changes in 

 the character of the chlorophyll ; the one when the chloro- 

 phyll is not yet mature and the other 

 when it is dying. 



The acorns are characteristic, and 

 need never be mistaken. They are the 

 largest borne by any oak of the Biennial 

 group, and sit in fiat shallow cups with 

 prominent rims and close scales. The 

 „ ^ _ , - , kernel is white and extremely bitter. 



Red Oak, Quercus rubra. ■' 



Acorns %' to I'/i' long. Wildwood creatures care little for them 

 and they remain under the trees all win- 

 ter unless eaten by swine. The Red Oak ranges farther 

 north than any other of the Biennials ; it has been found 

 on the banks of the Saskatchewan. Climatic conditions so 

 affect it that there it ceases to be a tree, nor is it even a 

 shrub, but it transforms itself by stress of circumstances 

 into burls and knobs and low knotted heads only a foot or 

 two high. 



SCARLET OAK 



Qu/rcus cocclnea. 



Usually seventy or eighty feet high, maximum height one hun- 

 dred and sixty, with slender trunk, rather small branches, open 

 narrow head. Prefers a dry, sandy soil. Ranges from Maine 

 through central New York to southern Ontario, west through 

 Michigan and Minnesota to Nebraska, south on the Alleghanies to 

 North Carolina and Tennessee. 



Bark. — Dark brown, with shallow fissures, scaly. Young stems 

 and branches smooth and light brown. Inner side of bark reddish 

 or gray. Branchlets at first scurfy, later pale green and shining, 

 finally reddish, at last light brown. 



354 



