OAK FAMILY 
tire subject of spring and autumn tints is becoming more and 
more interesting as it is more carefully studied. It is now 
well understood that the frost is not a factor in the problem 
and that both spring and autumn tints arise from changes in 
the character of the chlorophyll; the one when the chloro- 
phyll is not yet mature and the other 
when it is dying. 
The acorns are characteristic, an. 
need never be mistaken. They are th. 
largest borne by any oak of the Biennial 
group, and sit in flat shallow cups with 
prominent rims and close scales. The 
Deg ae Renae ne kernel is white and extremely bitter. 
Acorns 34’ to 11/’ long. Wildwood creatures care little for them 
and they remain under the trees all win- 
ter unless eaten by swine. The Red Oak ranges farther 
north than any other of the Biennials; it has been found 
on the banks of the Saskatchewan. Climatic conditions so 
affect it that there it ceases to be a tree, nor is it evena 
shrub, but it transforms itself by stress of circumstances 
into burls and knobs and low knotted heads only a foot or 
two high. , 
SCARLET OAK 
Quercus coccinea. 
Usually seventy or eighty feet high, maximum height one hun- 
dred and sixty, with slender trunk, rather small branches, open 
narrow head. Prefers a dry, sandy soil. Ranges from Maine 
through central New York to southern Ontario, west through 
Michigan and Minnesota to Nebraska, south on the Alleghanies te 
North Carolina and Tennessee. 
Bark.—Dark brown, with shallow fissures, scaly. Young stems 
and branches smooth and light brown. Inner side of bark reddish 
or gray. Branchlets at first scurfy, later pale green and shining, 
finally reddish, at last light brown. 
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