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 always richly 

 dappled with 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 



