64 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
often, and the entire lobes are cut almost to the midrib in 
one or more places. The acorn is an inch or more long 
and is set in a deep cup which resembles a burr, being 
covered with bristly scales. The acorn is rather sweet. 
All of these species of oak have winter buds that are 
very small, seldom more than a quarter of an inch long. 
All are deciduous trees, yet most of the varieties men- 
tioned, especially the white oak, retains many leaves 
during the winter months. Are the buds of the oak so 
much more delicate than those of other trees that they 
must be protected by the old leaves, or is it simply in keep- 
ing with the sturdy character of the whole tree that the 
petioles of oak leaves are tough and well attached to the 
branches ? After all has been said about the identification 
of oak trees it yet remains a difficult and sometimes 
impossible task because of the tendency of different forms 
to approach each other in the intermingling of the species. 
Lakeside, 111. 
OUR SUMMER'S DIVERSIONS. 
BY H. A. SHIRLEY. 
THE quaint old Moravian town of Salem in North Car- 
olina possessed a little group of botanists in the early 
part ol the last century, one of whom, von Schweinitz, is 
remembered the world over by botanists from his having 
discovered over twelve hundred new species of fungi and 
from the enormous personal collection of flora that he 
made. While residing in Salem from 1812 to 1825 he 
made a list of 1439 species of wild plants collected by him- 
self in a radius of thirty miles, but last summer proved 
that there were still new things in this field to be found, 
even by a novice. 
My friend and I had been walking occasionally, just 
for the pleasure of walking, taking interest in the mistle- 
toe, umbrella-trees, the Woodwardia angustifolia ferns 
and things noticeably out of the common, when our 
attention was called especially to the orchid family. Who 
amongst amateur botanists has not felt the fascination 
