Quercus alba, L.

Form.—Height 75-100 feet, diameter 3-6 feet; trunk long and free from limbs and with slight taper; crown broad and open with wide-spreading and often twisted branches.

Leaves.—Alternate, simple, 5-8 inches long, obovate-oblong, rounded at the apex and with usually 7 rounded lobes with entire edges, bright green above, glaucous beneath.

Flowers.—May, when leaves are one-third grown; monoecious; the staminate in long pendulous catkins; the pistillate borne above on short stalks in the leaf axils.

Fruit.—Acorns maturing in autumn after flowering; cup with small brown tomentose scales, enclosing about ¼ of the nut; nut ovoid, rounded at apex, light brown, shining; kernel bitter-sweet.

Bark.—On old trunks rough with deep fissures, and ridges which are often broken into short flat light gray scales.

Wood.—Strong, heavy, close-grained, durable, light reddish brown with thin sapwood.

Range.—Maine and Minnesota to Florida and Texas.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Found in every county and in almost every locality except at high elevations.

Habitat.—Grows on many different types of soils and from moist bottom lands to the tops of dry ridges.

Notes.—The White Oak ranks as one of the most valuable timber trees. It is known to more persons than any of our other oaks, and is generally praised as a beautiful and useful tree.