198 
POPULAR FLORA. 
85. OAK FAMILY. Order CUPULIFERJE. 
Trees or shrubs, with alternate and simple straight-veined leaves, deciduous stipules, and 
monoecious flowers; the sterile flowers in slender catkins (or in head-like clusters in the 
Beech); the fertile flowers surrounded with an involucre which forms a cup, bur, or bag 
around the nut. 
Fertile flowei*s scattered, or 2 or 3 together, their 
Involucre one-flowered, of many little scales, forming a cup around the base of the 
hard and roundish nut or acoi-n (Fig. 205), ( Quercus) Oak. 
Involucre containing 2 or 3 flowers, becoming a very prickly and closed bur enclos¬ 
ing the nuts, and splitting into 4 thick pieces. 
Nuts 1 to 3, roundish or flattish, thin-shelled. Sterile catkins long, ( Castanea ) Chestnut. 
Nuts 2, sharply 3-angled. Sterile catkins like a head-like cluster, (Fagus) Beech. 
Involucre a leafy cup, lobed or torn at the end, longer than the bony nut, ( Corylus) Hazel. 
Fertile flowers also collected in a kind of catkin. Nut small like an akene. 
Involucre an open 3-lobed leaf, 2-flowered, ( Carp'inus) Hornbeam. 
Involucre a closed bladdery bag, one-flowei*ed, the whole catkin making a fruit like 
a hop in general appearance, ( Ostrya) Hop-Hornbeam. 
Oak. Quercus. 
* Acorn ripening the first year, therefore boi'ne on shoots of the season: cups stalked, except in 
No. 2: kernel generally sweet-tasted. 
1. Overcup or Bur Oak. Leaves obovate, sinuate-pinnatifid, whitish-downy beneath; acorn 1' or 
IP long, in a deep cup with a mossy-fringed border. Q. macrocarpa. 
2. Post Oak. Leaves oblong, pale and rough above, grayish-downy beneath, pinnatifid, with 5 to 7 
blunt lobes; cup saucer-shaped, much shorter than the acorn. Small tree. Q. oUusiloba. 
3. White Oak. Leaves smooth when full grown, pale beneath, pinnatifid; the lobes 5 to 9, oblong or 
linear, entire; cup much shorter than the oval or oblong acorn. Rich, woods. Q. alba. 
4. Swamp Chestnut-Oak. Leaves obovate, whitish-downy beneath, coarsely and bluntly toothed 
or sinuate; cup thick,hemispherical, with stout or pointed scales; acorn oval, 1' long. Q. Prims. 
5. Yellow Chestnut-Oak. Leaves lance-oblong, or oblong, acute, whitish, but scarcely downy 
' beneath, rather sharply and evenly toothed; cup thin, and acorn smaller than in No. 4. Rich 
woods. Q. Castanea. 
6. Chinquapin Oak. Much like No. 4, but a mere shrub, 2° to 6° high, with a thin cup and a smaller 
acorn. Sandy, barren soil. Q. prindides. 
* * Acorn ripening in the autumn of the second year; ripe fruit therefore on wood two years old, 
sessile: kernel bitter. 
h- Leaves entire or nearly so, narrow. 
7. Live Oak. Leaves thick, evergreen, hoary beneath, oblong, small. Sea-coast, S. Q. virens. 
8. Willow Oak. Leaves light green, smooth, lance-linear, tapering, 3' or 4' long. S. & W. Q. Phellos. 
9. Shingle or Laurel Oak. Leaves shining above, rather downy beneath, lance-oblong, thickish; 
cup saucer-shaped; acorn globular. Common S. & W. Q. imbricaria. 
