OAK FAMILY 
Wood.—Light reddish brown, sapwood darker; heavy, hard, 
coarse-grained, strong. Sp. gr., 0.7095; weight of cu. ft., 42.20 lbs, 
Winter Buds.—Dark reddish brown, hairy, acute, one-eighth to 
one-fourth of an inch long. 
Leaves.—Alternate, three to six inches long, two and one-half to 
five broad, oblong or obovate or oval in outline, truncate or wedge- 
shaped at base, deeply divided by wide sinuses into seven or nine 
lobes, which are repandly dentate, terminating with bristle-pointed 
teeth. Terminal lobe is three-toothed, the middle division being 
much longer than the other furnished with two small] teeth near its 
apex. Lateral lobes are obovate, oblique or spreading or falcate, 
the middle ones usually the largest of all; midrib and_ primary 
veins conspicuous. They come out of the bud convolute, bright 
red, coated beneath with silvery white tomentum, finally become 
green though still silvery; when full grown are bright green, 
smooth and very shining above, paler and less shining beneath. 
In autumn they turn a brilliant scarlet color. Petioles slender, 
terete, one and one-half to two inches long. Stipules caducous. 
Flowers.--May, when leaves are half grown. Staminate aments 
slender, three to four inches long. Calyx is hairy, red in bud, four 
to five lobed. Stamens usually four; filaments slender; anthers 
yellow. Pistillate flowers borne on downy peduncles ; involucral 
scales ovate, downy; stigmas bright red. 
Acorns.—Ripen in the autumn of second year. Sessile or stalked, 
solitary or in pairs. Nut oval, or oblong-ovate or hemispherical, 
truncate or rounded at base, rounded at apex, one-half to one inch 
long, light reddish brown, occasionally striate ; cup cup-shaped or 
turbinate, incloses one-third to one-half of nut, light reddish brown 
on inner surface, covered with closely imbricated, light reddish brown 
scales. Kernel whitish. 
Stand under this tree and see how finely its leaves are cut against the sky, as 
it were only a few sharp points extending froma midrib. They look like double, 
treble or quadruple crosses 
s. They are far more ethereal than the less deeply 
scalloped oak leaves. They have so little leafy ¢erru-firma that they appear 
melting away in the light and scarcely obstruct our view. The leaves of very 
young plants are like those of full-grown oaks of other species, more entire, 
simple, and lumpish in their outlines, but these raised high on old trees have 
solved the leafy problem. Lifted higher and higher and sublimated more and 
more, putting off some earthiness and cultivating more intimacy with the light 
each year, they have at length the least possible amount of earthy matter, and 
the greatest spread and grasp of sky influences. There they dance arm in arm 
with the light,—tripping it on fantastic points, fit partners in those aérial halls. 
So intimately mingled are they with it, that what with their slenderness and 
their glossy surfaces, you ean hardly tell at last what in the dance is leaf and 
what is light. 
Tam again struck with their beauty, when, a month later, they thickly strew 
the ground in the woods piled one upon another under my feet. They are 
then brown above, but purple beneath, with their narrow lobes and their bold 
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