Genus Quercus, L. (Oak)

Leaves - simple; alternate; edge coarsely and evenly wavy-toothed. Outline - reverse egg-shape or sometimes oval. Apex - blunt-pointed. Base - rounded or slightly pointed, and often somewhat unequal. Leaf - four to seven inches long, two to four inches wide; smooth above, paler and downy beneath. Teeth - twelve to twenty-six, decreasing evenly and uniformly to the apex. Bark - of trunk, gray; furrowed up and down with continuous and often very deep furrows, with sharp ridges between. Acorns - usually in pairs on a stem about one half of an inch long, or often shorter. Cup - rounded or somewhat top-shaped, with minute scales, or warty. Nut - usually long egg-shape or long oval; one to one and one fourth inches long; brown; about one third covered by the cup; sweet. September, October. Found - from Eastern Massachusetts to New York, southward to Delaware, along the Alleghany Mountains to Alabama and westward to Central Kentucky and Tennessee. General Information - A tree forth to seventy feet in height, with strong, hard wood, largely used in fencing, or railroad ties, etc.; of less value than that of the White Oak. Its bark is very rich in tannin. Quercus, possible from a Celtic word meaning to inquire, because it was among the oaks that the Druids oftenest practised their rites.

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