OAK FAMILY 



oring, like their spring coloring, is without red, being bright 

 yellow or yellowish brown. The acorns are peculiar, but 

 the cup is the most noticeable thing about them. The 

 scales are so large and free that they make the cup look 

 mossv. The rim is beautifully fringed. Then, too, this 

 mossy cup fairly embraces the nut, covers two-thirds to 

 three-fourths of its surface. This is the normal fruit ; at 

 the north where the tree changes to a shrub the acorn is 

 small and the cup loses its furbelows. 



The corky wings which are frequently found on the young 

 branches form a third distinguishing character. These ridges 

 begin to form usually the third or fourth season and remain 

 for several years, finally disappearing as the branches become 

 old. When it is rememliered that the cork of commerce is 

 the outer bark of an oak tree native to southern Europe, it 

 is interesting to see a northern species showing a tendency 

 to produce the same thing. 



CHESTNUT OAK. ROCK CHESTNUT OAK 



Qiiertiis pniius. 



A mountain tree though found in the low lands, usually sixty to 

 seventy feet high, sometimes one hundred ; the trunk dividing into 

 large limbs not very far from the ground. Ranges from Maine to 

 Georgia and Alabama, westward through Ohio and southward to 

 Kentucky and Tennessee. 



Bark. — Djrk, fissured into broad ridges, scaly. Branchlets stout, 

 at first bronze green, later they become reddish brown, finally dark 

 gray or brown. Heavily charged with tannic acid. 



IVood. — Dark brown, sapwood lighter ; heavy, hard, strong, 

 tough, close-grained, durable in contact with the soil. Used for 

 fencing, fuel, and railwav ties. Sp. gr., 0.7499; weight of cu. ft., 

 46.73 lbs. 



U'inlcr Buds. — Light chestnut brown, ovate, acute, one-fourth to 

 one-half of an inch long. 



ZfciTi-s. — .Alternate, fi\e to nine inches long, three to four and a 

 half wide, obovate to oblong-lanceolate, wedge-shaped or rounded 

 at base, coarsely crenately toothed, teeth rounded or acute, ape.x 



338 



