206 



In order that you may more readily find it, the Pool 

 Hes just north of the Httle round Summer House, 

 which has, for a distinguishing mark on the map, an 

 open loop of walk at its south. This gives it a kind 

 of dumb-bell look which is easily noted. A little 

 rustic bridge spans the westerly outlet of this Pool. 

 If you stand on this bridge, face northerly, and follow 

 the path, northerly, you will find the post oak about 

 midway, on your right hand, between the first and 

 second forks of the path as you proceed northerly. It 

 is a medium-sized tree, and you can pick it out easily 

 by its leaves which are cut very peculiarly. These 

 are from four to six inches long, leathery, dark green 

 on the uppersides, but on the undersides downy and 

 whitish. These leaves are cut by two deep sinuses, 

 about a third way up, on either side of the midrib. 

 This throws the upper part, generally, into three broad, 

 obtuse, divergent lobes. These divergent lobes are 

 often double. But it is the broad upper part, with the 

 two large bays or sinuses, which cut it from the lower 

 part of the leaf, that strikes your eye as a marked 

 characteristic. It gives the leaves, the upper portion, 

 a rather star-like look, as you glance up at them against 

 the sky, and it is this feature which has given the tree its 

 specific botanical name stellata. As a whole the leaf is 

 generally from five to seven-lobed. Sometimes the leaf 

 takes a short, broad egg-shaped outline, lacking the 

 two deep sinuses, but the more common form of the 

 leaf is that described above, with the sinuses. The 

 tree's acorn is about half an inch long, egg-shaped, 

 nearly sessile, and set in a broad, close-scaled, saucer- 



