30 
TREES AS GOOD CITIZENS 
older ones sepia-brown or grey. Its buds are pointed and 
practically free from hairs; the leaves are not as deeply 
lobed as the Black and Scarlet Oak and are of a dull, dark 
green or yellowish green on the upper side, somewhat paler 
underneath and with lighter veins. In the autumn the 
leaves turn a deep maroon red. It has a large acorn set 
in a broad shallow cup. The Scarlet Oak has thick dark 
brown bark, with irregular, shallow furrows. Its leaves 
are thin, a shiny olive green above, somewhat paler 
beneath. The autumn coloring of the leaves is deep, car¬ 
dinal red. The buds are blunt and smooth with a slight 
hairy covering at the base. The oaks of the Black Oak group 
require two years to mature their acorns, and for this reason 
the same tree will, at the same time, show young acorns of 
the new crop and fully grown acorns of the previous year. 
The kernel of the acorn in the White Oak group is mostly 
lacking in the bitter principle, some of them being quite 
edible, while those of the Black Oak group are bitter. 
Ash leaves are composed of several leaflets along a 
single leaf stalk. These leaflets are in pairs, opposite to 
each other on the stem, together with a terminal leaflet. 
The number of leaflets on each ranges from five to nine, 
most frequently seven. The leaves are also arranged 
opposite one another on the twigs and branches. There 
is a wide difference between the characteristics of the 
Green Ash and those of the White Ash. The leaves of 
the White Ash are whitish beneath and smooth, often 
with a few suggestions of coarse teeth; those of the Green 
Ash are green on both surfaces and have teeth like saws. 
While the Horse Chestnut belongs to the same genus as 
the Buckeye, the two are quite different. The leaves of 
the Horse Chestnut are seven-fingered, while those of the 
Ohio, Sweet and Red Buckeyes are usually five-fingered; 
the flowers of the former are five-petaled, of the Buckeyes 
