OAK FAMILY 



Wood. — Light reddish brown, sapwood darker ; heavy, hard, 

 coarse-grained, strong. Sp. gr., 0.7095 ; weight of cu. ft., 42.20 lbs. 



Winter Buds. — Dark reddish brown, hairy, acute, one-eighth to 

 one-fourth of an inch long. 



Leaves. — Alternate, three to six inches long, two and one-half to 

 five broad, oblong or obovate or oval in outline, truncate or wedge- 

 shaped at base, deeply divided by wide sinuses into seven or nine 

 lobes, which are repandly dentate, terminating with bristle-pointed 

 teeth. Terminal lobe is three-toothed, the middle division being 

 much longer than the other furnished with two small teeth near its 

 apex. Lateral lobes are obovate, oblique or spreading or falcate, 

 the middle ones usually the largest of all ; midrib and primary 

 veins conspicuous. They come out of the bud convolute, bright 

 red, coated beneath with silvery white tomentum, finally become 

 green though still silvery ; when full grown are bright green, 

 smooth and very shining above, paler and less shining beneath. 

 In autumn they turn a briUiant scarlet color. Petioles slender, 

 terete, one and one-half to two inches long. Stipules caducous. 



Flowers. — May, when leaves are half grown. Staminate aments 

 slender, three to four inches long. Calyx is hairy, red in bud, four 

 to five lobed. Stamens usually four ; filaments slender ; anthers 

 yellow. Pistillate flowers borne on downy peduncles ; involucral 

 scales ovate, downy : stigmas bright red. 



Acorns. — Ripen in the autumn of second year. Sessile or stalked, 

 solitary or in pairs. Nut oval, or oblong-ovate or hemispherical, 

 truncate or rounded at base, rounded at, apex, one-half to one inch 

 long, light reddish brown, occasionally striate ; cup cup-shaped or 

 turbinate, incloses one-third to one-half of nut, light reddish brown 

 on inner surface, covered with closely imbricated, light reddish brown 

 scales. Kernel whitish. 



Stand under this tree and see how finely its leaves are cut against the sky, as 

 it were only a few sharp points extending from a midrib. They look like double, 

 treble or quadruple crosses. They are far more ethereal than the less deeply 

 scaUoped oak leaves. They have so little leafy terra-fir^na that they appear 

 melting away in the light and scarcely obstruct our view. The leaves of very 

 young plants are like those of full-grown oaks of other species, more entire, 

 simple, and lumpish in their outlines, but these raised high on old trees have 

 solved the leafy problem. Lifted higher and higher and sublimated more and 

 more, putting off some earthiness and cultivating more intimacy with the light 

 each year, they have at length the least possible amount of earthy matter, and 

 the greatest spread and grasp of sky influences. There they dance arm in arm 

 with the light, — tripping it on fantastic points, fit partners in those aerial halls. 

 So intimately mingled are they with it, that what with their slenderness and 

 their glossy surfaces, you can hardly tell at last what in the dance is leaf and 

 what is light. 



I am again struck with their beauty, when, a month later, they thickly strew 

 the ground in the woods piled one upon another under my feet. They are 

 then brown above, but purple beneath, with their narrow lobes and their bold 



356 



