OAK FAMILY 
Acorns.—Ripen in the autumn of the second year ; solitary or in 
pairs, sessile or stalked; nut oblong-ovoid with broad base, full, 
sometimes narrowed at apex, three-fourths to one and one-fourth 
of an inch long; cup, saucer-shaped, usually covers only the base, 
sometimes one-fourth of the nut, thick, shallow, reddish brown, 
somewhat downy within, covered with thin imbricated reddish 
brown scales. Kernel white and very bitter. 
What gnarled stretch, what depth of shade is his! 
There needs no crown to mark the forest's king. 
How in his leaves outshines full summer's bliss ! 
Sun, storm, rain, dew, to him their tribute bring. 
How towers he, too, amid the billowed snows, 
An unquelled exile from the summer's throne, 
Whose plain, uncinctured front more kingly shows, 
Now that the obscuring courtier leaves are flown. 
—James Russe_L LOWELL, 
What delicate fans are the great Red Oak leaves now just developed, so thin 
and of so tender a green! They hang loosely flaccidly down at the mercy of the 
wind, like a new-born butterfly or dragon fly. A strong cold wind would blacken 
and tear them. They have not yet been hardened by exposure, these raw and 
tender lungs of the tree. —HeEnry D. THOREAU. 
The Red Oak finds its finest development in the states 
lying north of the Ohio river ; on the southern shore of Lake 
Erie it becomes a beautiful tree with a massive trunk, a mag- 
nificent rounded head and smooth clean-cut limbs which 
strike out from the trunk at large angles. The bark is 
smooth ; even in old age the trunk never becomes extremely 
rough and the limbs are always smooth. In color it is a 
brownish gray until the tree is old, when it becomes dark 
brown. 
The leaves vary from oblong to obovate and are of two 
typical forms. The full leaf with the shallow sinuses is 
the youthful form although old trees are often found bearing 
it. That with the deeper sinuses is perhaps the more common 
form. Often the petiole and midvein are a rich red color in 
midsummer and early autumn, though this is not true of all 
red oaks. The leaves come out of the bud a lovely pink 
and white, in midsummer they become a deep shining green 
and in autumn they turn a rich, dark, purplish red. The en- 
352 
