750 



Handbook of N ature-Stttdy 



into cups and saucers by the girls, 

 and those of the scarlet oak into 

 tops by the boys. The white 

 oaks turn a rich wine-color in the 

 autumn, while the bur and the 

 chestnut are yellow. The red 

 oak is a dark, wine-red; the black 

 oak russet, and the scarlet a deep 

 and brilliant red. When the oak 

 leaves first come from the buds 

 in the spring, they are soft and 

 downy and drooping, those of the 

 red and scarlet being reddish, and 

 those of the white, pale green 

 with red tints. Thoreau says of 

 them, "They hang loosely, flac- 

 idly down at the mercy of the 

 wind, like a new-bom butterfly 

 or dragonfly." 



The pollen-bearing flowers are 

 like beads on a string, several 

 strings hanging down from the 

 same point on the twig, making a 

 fringe, and they are attractive to 

 the eye that sees. The pistillate 

 flowers are inconspicuous, at the 

 axils of the leaves, and have 

 irregular or curved stigmas; they 

 are on the same branch as the 

 poUen-bearing flowers. 



The oak is long-lived; it does 

 Swamp white oak in winter. not produce acorns until about 



twenty years of age and requires 

 Although from two to three hundred years 



a century to mature. 

 is the average 

 age of most oaks, 

 yet a scarlet oak 

 of my acquain- 

 tance is about 

 four hundred 

 years old, and 

 there are oaks 

 still living in 

 England which 

 were there when 

 William, the 

 Con querer came. 

 The famous 

 Wadsworth Oak 

 at Geneseo.N.Y. 

 had a circum- 

 ference of twenty 



Leaves and acorn of the swamp white oak. 



