STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER 



trunk a fluted column effect. Large, sharp- 

 pointed buds, with close scales. The red oak 

 buds resemble to some extent those of the chestnut 

 oak, but there is a fine hair on the scales of the 

 red oak buds, while the scales of the chestnut oak 

 buds are bleached and have no hair. Where the 

 base of the bud joins the stem the buds of the red 

 oak are more constricted than those of the chest- 

 nut oak, and the chestnut oak buds seem more 

 sessile. Alternate leaf-scars. Acorn set in a 

 shallow cup of fine scales. 



The red oak is a lofty, wide-spreading tree of 

 great beauty. "No other oak," Emerson says, 

 "flourishes so readily in every situation, no 

 other is of so rapid growth, no other surpasses 

 it in beauty of foliage and of trunk; no oak 

 attains, in this climate, to more magnificent 

 dimensions; no tree, except the white oak, 

 gives us so noble an idea of strength. " 



It is perhaps of all the black oak group, the 

 easiest to distinguish in winter on account of 

 the smooth spaces between the fissures of the 

 bark on its trunk, and its pointed buds, which are 

 much less downy than those of the black oak. 



The wood is heavy, hard, and strong, but it 

 is not particularly valuable. It is used in the 

 construction and interior finish of houses and 

 for making cheap furniture. 



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