OAK FAMILY 
oring, like their spring coloring, is without red, being bright 
yellow or yellowish brown, ‘Phe acorns are peculiar, but 
the cup is the most noticeable thing about them. The 
scales are so large and free that they make the cup look 
mossy. The rim is beautifully fringed. Then, too, this 
mossy cup fairly embraces the nut, covers two-thirds to 
three-fourths of its surface. This is the normal fruit ; at 
the north where the tree changes to a shrub the acorn is 
small and the cup loses its furbelows. 
The corky wings which are frequently found on the young 
branches forma third distinguishing character. ‘These ridges 
begin to form usually the third or fourth season and remain 
for several years, finally disappearing as the branches become 
old. When it is remembered that the cork of commerce is 
the outer bark of an oak tree native to southern Europe, it 
is interesting to see a northern species showing a tendency 
to produce the same thing. 
CHESTNUT OAK. ROCK CHESTNUT OAK 
Quércus prinus, 
A mountain tree though found in the low lands, usually sixty to 
seventy feet high, sometimes one hundred ; the trunk dividing into 
large limbs not very far from the ground. Ranges from Maine to 
Georgia and Alabama, westward through Ohio and southward to 
Kentucky and Tennessee. 
Bark.—Dauark, fissured into broad ridges, scaly. Branchlets stout, 
at first bronze green, later they become reddish brown, finally dark 
gray or brown. Heavily charged with tannic acid. 
[Vood.—Dark brown, sapwood lighter; heavy, hard, strong, 
tough, close-grained, durable in contact with the soil. Used for 
fencing, fuel, and railway ues. Sp. gr., 0.7499; weight of cu. ft., 
46.73 lbs. 
Winter Buds.—Light chestnut brown, ovate, acute, one-fourth to 
one-half of an inch long. 
Leaves.—Alternate, five to nine inches long, three to four and a 
half wide, obovate to oblong-lanceolate, wedge-shaped or rounded 
at base, coarsely crenately toothed, teeth rounded or acute, apex 
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