Part 19

A medium-sized tree, 40 to 50 feet high. Buds and twigs stumpy and thick set with short branching. Buds very round and rusty. Twig persistently rough, alternate leaf-scars, the bark is hard and rough. Acorn enclosed in a deep, saucer-shaped cup.

The branches of the post oak are so thick set, short, and crooked that this oak is seldom confused with any other. It rarely grows to be more than twenty-five or thirty feet high, and the many low, crooked branches, crowded together at the base of the trunk, give, as Emerson says, the effect of the top of a tree whose trunk is under ground. The leaves of the post oak are often held through the winter, and they are so stiff, rough, and abundant that they are, in themselves, a distinguishing mark. The specimen in the Arnold Arboretum, from which the accompanying photograph was taken, holds its leaves later in the spring than any of the other oaks.

The wood is heavy, close-grained, hard, and durable, but it is difficult to season. It is used in the construction of houses, in the manufacture of carriages, and for cooperage, fencing, railway ties, and for fuel.

The specific name, minor (smaller), refers to the height of this oak as compared with that of the larger members of the family.

The post oak is found from Southern Massachusetts—on Cape Cod, on the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Naushon—to Northern Florida and, in certain localities, west to Eastern Kansas.

Quercus velutina]

A large tree, 70 to 80 and (rarely) 150 feet high. Bark thick, rough, and dark. Twigs smooth, with a bitter taste. Alternate leaf-scars. Buds very downy, sharp-pointed, and large. The acorns are set in a deep, conspicuously scaly cup. The kernel is bitter.

Quercus velutina

Page 92 ]

The black oak is distinguished by its rough, dark outer bark and rich yellow inner bark (which is seen when a small cut is made with a penknife), and its downy pointed buds. On young trees as well as old ones, the bark is very rough at the base of the trunk, and this roughness extends upwards in old trees.

The round, thin, brittle balls found on black oaks and known as oak-apples are produced by an insect which injures the leaf by puncturing it and depositing an egg. This causes irritation and an abnormal growth, from which the apple is formed. The grub which lives inside this excrescence becomes a chrysalis in the autumn, and changes to a fly in the spring, when it gnaws its way out by making a little hole through the shell.

The wood of the black oak is heavy, hard, and strong, but not tough, and it is liable to check in drying. The bark is rich in tannin, and it makes a yellow dye,—quercitron,—obtained from the inner bark. Used medicinally the bark is an astringent.

The specific name, velutina, was taken originally from the Latin word vellus, meaning shorn wool, and was applied by botanists to this tree on account of the fleecy character of the recent stems and leaves. The black oak is found growing throughout New England and in the South and West.

Quercus rubra]

A large tree, 60 to 150 feet high. The bark is fissured in long clefts, with broad, smooth places between, giving the trunk a fluted column effect. Large, sharp-pointed buds, with close scales. The red oak buds resemble to some extent those of the chestnut oak, but there is a fine hair on the scales of the red oak buds, while the scales of the chestnut oak buds are bleached and have no hair. Where the base of the bud joins the stem the buds of the red oak are more constricted than those of the chestnut oak, and the chestnut oak buds seem more sessile. Alternate leaf-scars. Acorn set in a shallow cup of fine scales.

The red oak is a lofty, wide-spreading tree of great beauty. “No other oak,” Emerson says, “flourishes so readily in every situation, no other is of so rapid growth, no other surpasses it in beauty of foliage and of trunk; no oak attains, in this climate, to more magnificent dimensions; no tree, except the white oak, gives us so noble an idea of strength.”

It is perhaps, of all the black oak group, the easiest to distinguish in winter on account of the smooth spaces between the fissures of the bark on its trunk, and its pointed buds, which are much less downy than those of the black oak.

The wood is heavy, hard, and strong, but it is not particularly valuable. It is used in the construction and interior finish of houses and for making cheap furniture.

Quercus rubra

Page 94 ]

The specific name, rubra, was given to it on account of the rich, red midrib and veins of the leaves.

It is the oak which is found farthest north, and it grows in all kinds of soil from Nova Scotia southward to Northern Georgia. The red oak was one of the earliest American trees introduced into Europe.

Quercus coccinea]

A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high. The bark is grayish and not deeply furrowed. Slender twigs, with small, alternate leaf-scars. Small buds, the tips being half as hairy as those of the black oak, while the bases are smooth. The acorn is one-half or more enclosed in a coarsely scaled cup. Its kernel is bitter.

The scarlet oak is the most brilliant member of the oak family. In summer its leaves are a shining green, in autumn they turn more glowingly red than those of any other oak, and in winter its buds and stems are smooth, and show more color than those of the other members of the genus. Its outline is less spreading in shape than those of oaks generally, and the bark of the trunk is not so coarsely furrowed as the black oak’s, nor so smooth as that of the red oak.

The wood is heavy and hard, and is used for the same purposes as red oak.

The specific name, coccinea (of a scarlet color), refers to the hue of the foliage in the autumn.

The scarlet oak is found growing throughout the Northeastern States and also in the South and West.