286 Next to the Ground 



are very finely cut — the most lacy indeed 

 among all oak foliage. Both have grayish- 

 black bark, thinner and less rough than the 

 bark of red oak, and nearly alvrays richly 

 dappled w^ith gray and green splotches of 

 lichen. The main difference is in the acorns, 

 and the color of the leaves in autumn. 

 Black-oak acorns are longish, with black- 

 and-brown striped shells, and set in rather 

 shallow^ delicate cups. Spanish oak acorns 

 are also in striped shells, but with deeper 

 cups, and the deepest orange-yellow rounds 

 at bottom. They are sweeter than those 

 of the black oak, hence are often called 

 " chinquapin acorns." School children nib- 

 ble them, but do not choose them for weap- 

 ons in an acorn battle. It is not that they 

 are too small, but some way they are 

 not easily shot after the manner of a mar- 

 ble; hence but poor ammunition. 



Frost turns the black oak a rich, dull crim- 

 son, the Spanish oak, a clear, green-mottled 

 yellow. Thus the trees, growing cheek-by- 

 jowl, dapple gorgeously the autumn woods. 

 Both trees are prolific in galls. The galls are 

 practically indistinguishable, round, growing 

 out from a fragment of leaf, smooth, bright- 

 green, glistening, as big as the biggest glass 

 marble, faintly crinkled over the outer sur- 

 face, and hollow except for spider-webby rays 



