DESCRIPTION OP TREES SUITABLE POR PLANTING. 65 



tained when past middle age, reaching a large size, 60 to 80 feet in height 

 and attaining an advanced age. The trunk, covered with rough, nearly 

 black bark, is excurrent in young specimens, which have a conical crown 

 formed of slender, rather short dropping and spreading branches. In 

 old trees the trunk usually branches towards the top and the crown be- 

 comes more oval and round topped, but the sweeping habit of the slender 

 lower branches is persistent. The twigging is slender and graceful. The 

 foliage is small, bright green, willow-like, whence the name, and casts a 

 deep shade. While more rapid growth is made on good soils, it yet does 

 well on close dry ones. It roots very easily, which enables large specimens 

 to be transplanted in spite of its rather deeply seated roots. It recovers 

 rapidly from very heavy pruning even when old and so readily in young 

 specimens that even after heavy topping a normal leader is usually at 

 once developed. Care should always be taken, however, to prevent the 

 formation of false leaders which will destroy the crown's symmetry. 

 Trees should be spaced 40 feet. 



On account of its erect shape and pleasing foliage, rapid healthy 

 growth and adaptability to heavy, clay soils, the willow oak makes one of 

 the most desirable shade trees for the middle portion of the State, and is 

 extensively planted in several towns. Try on and Church streets in Char- 

 lotte, which are planted with this tree, deserve to rank among the most 

 beautiful in the State. 



Shingle Oak (Quercus imbricaria), a small tree growing along 

 streams in many portions of the mountains, has a habit much like that of 

 the water oak, and makes a small but desirable tree for street planting in 

 the western portion of the State. It is the smallest oak of that region 

 which is suitable for a shade tree. It seldom reaches a height of more 

 than 30 feet and requires a spacing of not less than 25 feet. 



White Oak (Quercus alba), the most common tree throughout the 

 State, growing on all classes of soils, is of slow growth, although the rate 

 is well sustained to an advanced age, reaching a very large size, from 70 

 to 100 feet high, and becoming more than a century old. While the 

 trunk is excurrent in young specimens, it gradually branches after pass- 

 ing middle age, the shape of the crown changing from conical in early 

 youth to depressed globose in age, with long wide-spreacling or horizontal 

 branches. While the twigging is not so abundant or finely divided as it 

 is in the water oaks, it is more so than in any other white oak or any of 

 the red oaks. The leaves, which appear rather late in April after the deli- 

 cate pale yellowish-green flowers, are, when un folding, of a soft silvery 

 green tinged with rose. The dense bright green, mature foliage droops 

 from the ends of the twigs and becomes in late autumn dark crimson and 



