Handbook of Trees of the Northern States and Canada. 169 



The Burr Oak has been known to attain the 

 great height of 170 ft. and 6 or 7 ft. in diame- 

 ter of trunk, in the magnificent forests of the 

 Wabash River basin — dimensions which make 

 this one of the very largest American Oaks, 

 but such trees are very uncommon. When 

 isolated it develops an ovoid or rounded top 

 with large branches and stout branchlets. As- 

 sociate with its majestic stature the beauty of 

 its party-colored foliage and its large acorns 

 with mossy-fringed cups and we have one of 

 the most interesting trees of its genus. It in- 

 habits almost exclusively rich bottom-lands, 

 excepting the western part of its range, in 

 company with the Swamp White Oak, the 

 Black and Silver Maples, Big Shelbark Hick- 

 ory, Hackberry, Elms, etc. 



Its wood is hea\-y, a cubic foot when abso- 

 lutely dry, weighing 46.45 lbs., tough and 

 strong.i It is fully equal in properties to that 

 of the White Oak and usually not distin- 

 guished from it in commerce. It is highly 

 valued for ship building, furniture, interior 

 finishing, agricultural implements, baskets, 

 railway ties, fuel, etc. 



Leaves ohovate to oblong, .5-9 in. long, mostly 

 wedge-shaped at base, deeply lyrate-pinnatifid. 

 with 5-7 lobes the terminal one the largest and 

 irregularly crenate dentate, sometimes nearly en- 

 tire, lustrous dark green above and whitish pubes- 

 cent beneath ; petioles short. Flowers: staminate 

 aments slender, 2-6 in. long ; calyx yellowish with 

 4-6 lacinately-toothed lobes. Fruit solitary or in 

 pairs, sessile or with stalk shorter than the 

 petioles ; acorn broad-ovold, usually rounded or 

 depressed at apex from % in. in length on northern 

 trees to 2 in. on southern trees, with usually thick 

 tomentose cups, tuberculate below and with scales 

 near the rim prolonged into awn-like tips forming 

 a fringed border. 



1. A. W., II, 39. 



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