Part 9

The yellow birch, Betula lutea Michx., one of the most valuable hardwood timber trees around the Great Lakes, is represented in Illinois by a few small trees in Lee and Lake counties. It may be known by its bark becoming silvery-gray as the trunk expands and breaking into strips curled at the edges. The wood is strong and hard, close-grained, light brown tinged with red. It is used for interior finish, furniture, woodenware and turnery. It is prized as firewood.

+BEECH+ Fagus grandifolia Ehrh.

THE beech is found from Maine to Wisconsin south to the Gulf and Texas, growing along with maples, oaks and tulip trees. It occurs in the ravines of the southern Illinois counties up to Vermilion County. It is one of the most beautiful of all trees either in summer or winter.

One-half natural size.]

The bark is, perhaps, the most distinctive characteristic, as it maintains an unbroken light gray surface throughout its life. So tempting is this smooth expanse to the owner of a jack-knife that the beech has been well designated the "initial tree."

The simple, oval leaves are 3 to 4 inches long, pointed at the tip and coarsely toothed along the margin. When mature, they are almost leathery in texture. The beech produces a dense shade. The winter buds are long, slender and pointed.

The little, brown, three-sided beech-nuts are almost as well known as chestnuts. They form usually in pairs in a prickly bur. The kernel is sweet and edible, but so small as to offer insufficient reward for the pains of biting open the thin-shelled husk.

The wood of the beech is very hard, strong, and tough, though it will not last long on exposure to weather or in the soil. It is used to some extent for furniture, flooring, carpenter's tools, and novelty wares and extensively in southern Illinois for railroad ties and car stock.

The American chestnut, Castanea dentata Borkh., extends its range from Maine to Michigan, and southward to Delaware and Tennessee. There is a stand of chestnuts in Pulaski County and some trees have been planted in the southern part of the State. They are easily recognized by their alternate simple, broadly lanceolate coarsely toothed leaves, and their prickly burs about 2 inches in diameter containing 1-3 nuts.

A KEY TO THE OAKS OF ILLINOIS

A. Leaves without bristle tips; bark gray; acorns maturing at the end of 1 season; white oaks. B. Leaves lobed. C. Acorn-cup not enclosing the acorn. D. Acorn-cup shallow, warted Q. alba DD. Acorn-cup covering 1/2 of the acorn Q. stellata CC. Acorn-cup enclosing the acorn. D. Acorn-cup not fringed Q. lyrata DD. Acorn-cup fringed Q. macrocarpa BB. Leaves not lobed, coarsely toothed. C. Acorn-stalked. D. Acorn-stalks longer than petioles Q. bicolor DD. Acorn-stalks short E. Acorn-cup flat-bottomed; bark like that of white oak Q. prinus EE. Acorn-cup deep; bark like that of red oak Q. montana CC. Acorns sessile, cup deep Q. muhlenbergii

AA. Leaves with bristle tips; bark dark; acorns mature at the end of two seasons; black and red oaks. B. Leaves lobed. C. Deeply lobed. D. Leaves deep green on both sides. E. Acorn-cup broad and shallow a. Acorn large Q. rubra aa. Acorn small b. Acorn ovoid Q. shumardii bb. Acorn globose Q. palustris EE. Acorn-cup deep a. Cup-scales loosely imbricated winter buds large and hairy Q. velutina aa. Cup-scales tightly appressed, winter buds small and smooth b. Acorn small Q. ellipsoidalis bb. Acorn large Q. coccinea DD. Leaves pale green beneath Q. falcata CC. Leaves shallowly lobed, winter buds rusty-hairy Q. marilandica BB. Leaves entire. C. Leaves hairy beneath; acorn sessile Q. imbricaria CC. Leaves not hairy; acorn stalked Q. phellos

+WHITE OAK+ Quercus alba L.

WITHIN its natural range, which includes practically the entire eastern half of the United States, the white oak is one of the most important timber trees. It commonly reaches a height of 60 to 100 feet and a diameter of 2 to 3 feet; sometimes it becomes much larger. It is found in a wide variety of upland soils. When grown in a dense stand it has a straight continuous trunk, free of side branches for over half its height. In the open, however, the tree develops a broad crown with far-reaching limbs. Well-grown specimens are strikingly beautiful.

Twig, one-third natural size. Leaf, one-quarter natural size.]

The leaves are alternate, simple 5 to 9 inches long and about half as broad. They are deeply divided into 5 to 9 rounded, finger-like lobes. The young leaves are a soft silvery-gray or yellow or red while unfolding, becoming later bright green above and much paler below. The flowers appear with the leaves, the staminate are in hairy catkins 2-3 inches long, the pistillate are sessile in axils of the leaves.

The fruit is an acorn maturing the first year. The nut is 3/4 to 1 inch long, light brown, about one-quarter enclosed in the warty cup. It is relished by hogs and other livestock. The bark is thin, light ashy-gray and covered with loose scales or broad plates.

The wood is useful and valuable. It is heavy, strong, hard, tough, close-grained, durable, and light brown in color. The uses are many, including construction, shipbuilding, tight cooperage, furniture, wagons, implements, interior finish, flooring, and fuel. Notwithstanding its rather slow growth, white oak is valuable for forest, highway and ornamental planting.

The overcup oak, Quercus lyrata Walt., is similar to the white oak, but may be distinguished by the nearly spherical cup which nearly covers the somewhat flattened acorn. This oak occurs in the river bottoms in southern Illinois.

+BUR OAK+ Quercus macrocarpa Michx.

THE bur oak, which occurs throughout the State takes its name from the fringe around the cup of the acorn. It usually has a broad top of heavy spreading branches and a relatively short body. It is one of the largest trees in the State. In maturity, it attains a diameter of 5 feet or more and a height of over 80 feet. The bark is light gray and is usually broken up into small narrow flakes. The bur oak does not often form a part of the forest stand, as do some other oaks, but occurs generally singly in open stands and in fields. It requires a moist but well-drained soil.

One-third natural size.]

The leaves resemble somewhat those of the common white oak, but have a pair of deep indentations on their border near the base, and wavy notches on the broad middle and upper portions of the leaf. They range from 6 to 12 inches long and 3 to 6 inches wide. The fruit, or acorn, is a nut set deeply in a fringed cup. It is sometimes 1 inch or more in diameter but varies widely in respect to size and the degree to which the nut is enclosed in the mossy fringed cup.

The wood is heavy, hard, strong, tough and durable. It is used for much the same purposes as the other white oaks, lumber, piling, veneer logs, crossties and fuel.

The swamp white oak, Quercus bicolor Willd., occurs scattered in swamps, through the State. The leaves are obovate, coarsely toothed and wedge-shaped below. They are thick, dark green and shining above, pale and downy beneath. The acorns are borne in a deep rough scaly cup, on stems 2-4 inches long. The wood is like that of the white oak. The bark is gray-brown, separating into large, papery scales which curl back.

+YELLOW CHESTNUT OAK+ Quercus muhlenbergii Engelm.

THIS oak, also called the chinquapin oak, which is an excellent timber tree, occurs throughout the State. It grows on practically all classes of soil and in all moisture conditions except in swamps, and is a very tenacious tree on shallow, dry soil. The bark is light gray, and breaks up into short narrow flakes on the main trunk and old limbs. It reaches a height of 70 to 90 feet. The straight shapely trunk bears a round-topped head composed of small branches, which makes it an attractive shade tree.

One-third natural size.]