OAK FAMILY 



ll'ooii. — Pale reddish brown, sapwood lighter ; heavy, hard, 

 coarse-grained, checks badly in drying ; used for shingles and 

 sometimes in construction, Sp. gr., 0.7529; weight of cu. ft., 

 46.92 lbs. 



Winter Buds. — Light brown, ovate, acute, one-eighth inch long. 

 Leaves. — Alternate, oblong or obo\ate, four to si.\ inches long, 

 one to two inches wide, wedge-shaped or rounded at base, acute or 

 rounded at ape.x, sometimes entire or with undulated margins, some- 

 times more or less three-lobed. They come out of the bud in\olute, 

 bright red, covered with rusty down above and white tomentum be- 

 low. When full grown are dark green, smooth 

 and shining above, pale green or pale brown, 

 downy below ; midribs stout yellow, grooved 

 above, primary veins slender. In autumn they 

 become dark red above, pale beneath, midribs 

 darken, then the leaf Petioles stout, hairy, 

 flattened, grooved. Stipules about one-half 

 inch long, caducous. 



Flowers. — May, when leaves are half grown. 

 Staminate flowers borne on tomentose aments 

 two to three inches long. Bracts linear-lanceo- 

 late. Calyx pale yellow, downy, four-lobed ; 

 stamens four to five ; anthers yellow. Pistillate 

 flowers borne on slender tomentose peduncles. 

 Involucral scales are downy, aljout as long as 

 ij/ to %'. the calyx lobes ; stigmas short, retlexed, green- 



ish-yellow. 



Acorns. — Ripen in autumn of second year ; stalked, solitary or in 

 pairs ; nut almost spherical, one-half to two-thirds inch long ; cup 

 embraces one-half to one-third nut, is cup-shaped covered with light 

 red brown, downy scales, rounded or acute at apex. Kernel very 

 bitter. 



Shingle Oak, 

 iinhricarui. 



The Shingle Oak has a smooth bark and for three-fourths of its height is laden 

 with branches. It has an uncouth form \\hen bare in winter, but is beautiful in 

 summer when clad in its thick tutted foliage. The ]ca\-es are long, lanceolate, 

 entire, and of a shining green. — MlCII.\UX. 



The leaves of Laurel Oak or .'^hingle Oak are very narrow, almost linear at 

 first with their edges so straightly revolute that they almost touch each other. 

 They are slightly hairy, the ground color yellowish green with a purple tinge. 

 The fresh twigs arc flushed with red on the upper side where most exposed to 

 the light. The young leaves stand out stiffly from the ends of the branchlcts, 

 studding them with sharply outlined stellate clusters. Being so narrow the 

 foliage is very open and one can see through the tree top in almost any direc- 

 tion so that the tree has an appearance quite distinct from other oaks. 



— Gardin and Forest. 



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