OAK FAMILY 



Bark. — Light brown ; branchlets at first dark green and scurfy, 

 filially reddish brown or ashen gray ; charged with tannic acid. 



Winter Buds. — Light brown, ovate or globose, obtuse, one-eighth 

 of an inch long. 



Leaves. — Alternate, obovate or oblong, three to six inches long, one 

 to three inches wide, wedge-shaped at base, coarsely undulate-toothed 

 with rounded or acute teeth, acute or acuminate apex ; midrib and 

 primary veins conspicuous. They come out of the bud con\'olute, 

 reddish yellow, hairy above, coated with silver tomentum below, with 

 dark glands at the points of the teeth, when full grown dark yellow 

 green, rather shining above, pale green or silvery white, covered 

 with soft fine pubescence below. In autumn they turn bright orange 

 and scarlet. Petioles stout, short, flattened, grooved ; stipules ca- 

 ducous. 



Flowers. — Appear when leaves are one-third grown. Staminate 

 aments one and one-half to two and one-half inches long, hairy. 

 Calyx is pale yellow green, hairy, five to nine-lobed. Stamens five 

 to nine ; filaments slender ; anthers yel- 

 low. Pistillate flowers on short pedun- 

 cles ; involucral scales covered with sil- 

 very white tomentum ; stigmas bright 

 red. 



.■Icorns. — Abundant, annual, sessile 

 or stalked ; nut oval, rounded or obtuse 

 at apex which is covered with white 

 down, pale chestnut brown, shining, 

 one-half to three-fourths of an inch long; 

 seed sweet ; cup covers one-half to two- 

 thirds of the nut, thin, deeply cup- 

 shaped, light brown and downy inside, 

 hoary with tomentum outside. Scales loosely imbricated, red- 

 tipped, acute, thickened toward the base of the cup. The acorns 

 are not only eaten by swine and cattle but the wild creatures like 

 them as well. 



Chinquapin Ocik, Q, 

 Acorns V^' to 



SWAMP WHITE OAK 



Qilerciis plataiiiHtlis. Qiicrcns liicolor. 



Ordinarily sixty to seventy feet high maximum height, one hun- 

 dred and ten, with narrow round-topped head and pendulous 

 branches. Ranges from Quebec to Georgia and westward to 

 Arkansas. Never abundant. Loves the borders of swamps. 



Bark. — Gray brown, deeply fissured into flat ridges, scaly. 

 Branches greenish gray, smooth. On young stems smooth, flaky. 

 Branchlets at first stout, green, shining, later reddish brown, finally 

 gray brown or dark brown. 



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