52 
RED OAK. 
feet high in 1804, and its brilliant and vigorous vegetation proved how 
well the soil and climate was adapted to it. 
PLATE XXVII. 
Ji branch with leaves and fruit of the natural size. 
RED OAK. 
Q-uercus rubra. Q. foliis longé petiolatis, glabris^ obtuse sinuatis ; cuptdâ 
scutellatâ, sublævi ; glande subovatâ. 
Next to the Gray Oak, this species is found in the highest latitude of 
all the American Oaks, and is one of the most common species in the 
Northern States and in Canada. Further south, particularly in the lower 
part of New York, in New Jersey, the upper Districts of Pennsylvania, 
and along the whole range of the Alleghanies, it is nearly as abundant as 
the Scarlet and Black Oaks ; but it is much less common in Maryland, 
lower Virginia, and the maritime parts of the Carolinas and Georgia. 
This remark confirms an observation which I have often made, that its 
perfect development requires a cool climate and a fertile soil. It is uni- 
versally known by the name of Red Oak, except near Lancaster in Penn- 
sylvania, where it is sometimes confounded with the Spanish Oak. 
The Red Oak is a tall, wide-spreading tree, frequently more than 80 
feet high, and 3 or 4 feet in diameter. Its leaves are smooth and shining 
on both sides, large, deeply laciniated, and rounded at the base : they are 
larger and have deeper and narrower sections on the young stocks than on 
the middle or the summit of the full-grown tree ;• these last resemble the 
leaves of the Spanish Oak, which, however, are always downy beneath, 
while those of the Red Oak are perfectly smooth. In the autumn they 
change to a dull red, and turn yellow before they fall. 
The acorns are very large and abundant, rounded at the summit, com- 
pressed at the base, and contained in flat cups covered with narrow com- 
pact scales. They are voraciously devoured by wild animals, and by the 
cows, horses and swine which are allowed to range in the woods after the 
herbage has perished. 
The wood is reddish and coarse-grained, and the pores are often large 
