OAK FAMILY 
aments short; anthers yellow.  Pistillate flowers are sessile or borne 
on short peduncles, involucral scales reddish, tomentose ; stigmas 
bright red. 
Acorus.—Annual, sessile or stalked, solitary, variable in size and 
shape. Nut oval or ovate, pubescent, from: one-half to two inches 
in length ; cup cup-shaped, rarely shallow but usually deep, enclos- 
ing from one-third to nearly the entire nut, light brown, downy inside, 
outside dark brown, tomentose, covered with large imbricated scales 
which near the rim become half free and form a fringe-like border 
Kernel white. 
The Bur Oak ranges from Manitoba to Texas and from 
the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast. 
It goes farther to the northwest than any other of our eastern 
oaks, it varies in size from a shrub in Manitoba, to a magnifi- 
cent tree one hundred and sixty feet high in southern Illinois. 
It is the most abundant oak of Kansas and of Nebraska, it 
forms the scattered forests known as ‘* The Oak Openings” 
of Minnesota. 
Three marked characters distinguish the Bur Oak. Its 
leaves have a peculiar though variable outline which is un- 
mistakable, rarely if ever are two alike, yet all bear so marked 
a resemblance that there is no difficulty in distinguishing 
them. Every Bur Oak leaf is somewhere, usually about the 
middle, cut by two opposite sinuses nearly to the midrib. 
The terminal lobe so formed may 
itself be lobed or toothed or re- 
pand, the lower division may be 
lobed or entire, but with all these 
variations the leaves retain a 
general similarity. 
In the spring they are yellow 
green as they burst from the bud 
and do not like so many others 
take on a stain of red. At first 
they are downy and woolly but 
Bur Oak, Quercus macrocarpa. 
Acorns 14’ to 2’ long. 
soon become smooth and shining, 
Tie leaves spread out horizontally from the new shoots and 
the aments hang down in thick clusters. Their autumn col- 
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