Part 26

=Habitat and Range.=--In strong, well-drained soil; pastures, rocky woods, and hillsides.

Ontario,--common.

Maine,--southern sections, probably not indigenous north of latitude 44 deg. 20'; New Hampshire,--Connecticut valley near the river, as far north as Windsor, Vt.; most abundant in the Merrimac valley south of Concord, but occasional a short distance northward; Vermont,--common in the southern sections, especially in the Connecticut valley; occasional as far north as Windsor (Windsor county), West Rutland (Rutland county), Burlington (Chittenden county); Massachusetts,--rather common throughout the state, but less frequent near the sea; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--common.

South to Delaware, along the mountains to Alabama; west to Michigan, Indiana, and Tennessee.

=Habit.=--A tree of the first magnitude, rising to a height of 60-80 feet and reaching a diameter of 5-6 feet above the swell of the roots, with a spread sometimes equaling or even exceeding the height; attaining often much greater proportions. The massive trunk separates usually a few feet from the ground into several stout horizontal or ascending branches, the limbs higher up, horizontal or rising at a broad angle, forming a stately, open, roundish, or inversely pyramidal head; branchlets slender; spray coarse and not abundant; foliage bright green, dense, casting a deep shade; flowers profuse, the long, sterile catkins upon their darker background of leaves conspicuous upon the hill slopes at a great distance. A tree that may well dispute precedence with the white or red oak.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk in old trees deeply cleft with wide ridges, hard, rough, dark gray; in young trees very smooth, often shining; season's shoots green or purplish-brown, white-dotted.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, ovate, brown, acutish. Leaves simple, alternate, 5-10 inches long, 1-3 inches wide, bright clear green above, paler beneath and smooth on both sides; outline oblong-lanceolate, sharply and coarsely serrate; veins straight, terminating in the teeth; apex acuminate; base acute or obtuse; leafstalk short; stipules soon falling.

=Inflorescence.=--June to July. Appearing from the axils of the season's shoots, after the leaves have grown to their full size; sterile catkins numerous, clustered or single, erect or spreading, 4-10 inches long, slender, flowers pale yellowish-green or cream-colored; calyx pubescent, mostly 6-parted; stamens 15-20; odor offensive when the anthers are discharging their pollen: fertile flowers near the base of the upper sterile catkins or in separate axils, 1-3 in a prickly involucre; calyx 6-toothed; ovary ovate, styles as many as the cells of the ovary, exserted.

=Fruit.=--Burs round, thick, prickly, 2-4 inches in diameter, opening by 4 valves: nuts 1-5, dark brown, covered with whitish down at apex, flat on one side when there are several in a cluster, ovate when only one, sweet and edible.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; prefers fertile, well-drained, gravelly or rocky soil; rather difficult to transplant; usually obtainable in nurseries. Its vigorous and rapid growth, massive, broad-spreading head and attractive flowers make it a valuable tree for landscape gardening, but in public places the prickly burs and edible fruit are a serious disadvantage. Propagated from the seed.

1. Winter buds. 2. Flowering branch. 3. Sterile flower. 4. Fertile flower. 5. Fruit. 6. Nut.

=QUERCUS.=

Inflorescence appearing with the leaves in spring; sterile catkins from terminal or lateral buds on shoots of the preceding year, bracted, usually several in a cluster, unbranched, long, cylindrical, pendulous; bracts of sterile flowers minute, soon falling; calyx parted or lobed; stamens 3-12, undivided: fertile flowers terminal or axillary upon the new shoots, single or few-clustered, bracted, erect; involucre scaly, becoming the cupule or cup around the lower part of the acorn; ovary 3-celled; stigma 3-lobed.

WHITE OAKS.

Leaves with obtuse or rounded lobes or teeth; cup-scales thickened or knobbed at base; stigmas sessile or nearly so; fruit maturing the first year.

BLACK OAKS.

Leaves with pointed or bristle-tipped lobes and teeth; cup-scales flat; stigmas on spreading styles; fruit maturing the second year.

=Quercus alba, L.=

WHITE OAK.

=Habitat and Range.=--Light loams, sandy plains, and gravelly ridges, often constituting extensive tracts of forest.

Quebec and Ontario.

Maine,--southern sections; New Hampshire,--most abundant eastward; in the Connecticut valley confined to the hills in the immediate vicinity of the river, extending up the tributary streams a short distance and disappearing entirely before reaching the mouth of the Passumpsic (W. F. Flint); Vermont,--common west of the Green mountains, less so in the southern Connecticut valley (Flora of Vermont, 1900); Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut,--common.

South to the Gulf of Mexico; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas.

=Habit.=--A tree of the first rank, 50-75 feet high and 1-6 feet in diameter above the swell of the roots, exhibiting considerable diversity in general appearance, trunk sometimes dissolving into branches like the American elm, and sometimes continuous to the top. The finest specimens in open land are characterized by a rather short, massive trunk, with stout, horizontal, far-reaching limbs, conspicuously gnarled and twisted in old age, forming a wide-spreading, open head of striking grandeur, the diameter at the base of which is sometimes two or three times the height of the tree.

=Bark.=--Trunk and larger branches light ash-gray, sometimes nearly white, broken into long, thin, loose, irregular, soft-looking flakes; in old trees with broad, flat ridges; inner bark light; branchlets ash-gray, mottled; young shoots grayish-green, roughened with minute rounded, raised dots.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds 1/8 to 1/4 inch long, round-ovate, reddish-brown. Leaves simple, alternate, 3-7 inches long, 2-4 inches wide, delicately reddish-tinted and pubescent upon both sides when young; at maturity glabrous, light dull or glossy green above, paler and somewhat glaucous beneath, turning to various reds in autumn; outline obovate to oval; lobes 5-9; ascending, varying greatly in different trees; when few, short and wide-based, with comparatively shallow sinuses; when more in number, ovate-oblong, with deeper sinuses, or somewhat linear-oblong, with sinuses reaching nearly to midrib; apex of lobe rounded; base of leaf tapering; leafstalks short; stipules linear, soon falling. The leaves of this species are often persistent till spring, especially in young trees.

=Inflorescence.=--May. Appearing when the leaves are half grown; sterile catkins 2-3 inches long, with slender, usually pubescent thread; calyx yellow, pubescent; lobes 5-9, pointed: pistillate flowers sessile or short-peduncled, reddish, ovate-scaled.

=Fruit.=--Maturing in the autumn of the first year, single, or more frequently in pairs, sessile or peduncled: cup hemispherical to deep saucer-shaped, rather thin; scales rough-knobby at base: acorn varying from 1/2 inch to an inch in length, oblong-ovoid: meat sweet and edible, said to be when boiled a good substitute for chestnuts.