8i 



the characteristics of the two trees, the white oak and 

 the swamp white oak, for you will find a white oak, 

 of the broad-leaved form just across the Walk, up the 

 bank a little, on your right. The white oak has two 

 distinct forms of leaf, the narrow and the broad type. 

 The narrow is so deeply lobed that often it is but the 

 skeleton of a leaf ; the broad form of leaf is here before 

 you. The white oak's bark is of a light, bright, granite 

 gray, of the Barre shade, and is shallow fissured, seem- 

 ing to run in long, thin, narrow, flaky plates. So light 

 is the color of the white oak's bark that often tliis is 

 almost enough to identify it. To me the tree has a 

 much softer expression than the swamp white oak, 

 much less rough and tough. Often its bark has a 

 shade that is almost white, and its finely broken plates 

 seem of almost flaky fineness. Its winter buds are red- 

 dish brown and its acorn is very different from the 

 fringe-capped nut of the swamp white oak. The nut 

 itself is light brown and lustrous, while the cup, hemi- 

 spherical, is clean and fits about the nut with a clear 

 edge, seeming to constrict and bind the nut with a 

 slight depression at this point. 



Close by the Walk on your right, a little west of the 

 white oak, a fine red maple flings over you its three to 

 five-lobed leaves, cordate at the base. The red maple 

 can generally be easily known, even in winter, by its 

 gray, smooth, brittle-looking bark, with smoky drifts 

 clouded through it on the upper branches. Its end 

 twigs in winter are very conspicuously knobbed with 

 crimson buds. The red maple is a glory in the spring, 

 when its flowers, especially the pistillate ones, flush 



