American Forest Trees Part 23

The peculiar drooping foliage of Spanish oak gives the tree a character which impresses a person who sees the full-leafed crown for the first time. The leaves are six or seven inches long and four or five wide.

Their forms vary within wide limits, and their shapes change from week to week while growing. Some have no lobes or sinuses, others have them in rudimentary form only, while in still others they are well developed.

The tree is often called red oak, particularly by lumbermen who cut it and send it to market with red oak. In Louisiana it is known as Spanish water oak, there being much resemblance between it and water oak (_Quercus nigra_) with which it is a.s.sociated. Its range covers more than 200,000 square miles, beginning at the north in New Jersey and following down the coast regions to central Florida. It extends westward into Texas to the valley of the Brazos river; northward to Missouri and southern Indiana and Illinois. It does not grow far inland from the coast in the north Atlantic states, but further south it is common on the coast plain between the sea and the base of the mountains. It is often found on dry sand hills in that region. The largest Spanish oaks on record grew in the lower Ohio valley, particularly along the Wabash river. It is usually of medium size and large trunks are seldom seen.

The average height is seventy or eighty feet, diameter two or three. In the open, the crown is broad and low, but in forests the trunk prunes itself fairly well, and makes good saw timber, as far as form and size are concerned. The acorns ripen in two years, and are bitter. The bark is rich in tannin, but tanneries do not use much of it.

The tree is not generally abundant. Some large areas within its range have little, and thick stands are unusual anywhere. It is one of the oaks which lumbermen neither reject nor seek. They cut it in course of operations, and saw it and sell it under the common name, red oak.

The wood is heavy, very hard, and strong. It is reputed to decay more rapidly than most oaks, and it checks badly in seasoning. The annual rings of growth are broad, and the springwood is marked by several rows of large open pores. The medullary rays are few but conspicuous; color light red, the sapwood lighter. The wood weighs about three pounds less than white oak per cubic foot, and its fuel value is less.

It is not easy to compile an account of the uses of Spanish oak by the various industries of this country, for the reason that other oaks pa.s.s by its name and it is known by names which should not be applied to it.

It is shown, however, where special studies of its utilization have been made that it is a useful wood for many purposes. It is a useful furniture material, and though statistics do not give separate figures for it, evidently the total quant.i.ty consumed yearly runs into many millions of feet. It is much employed in the manufacture of tables, chiefly for frames, but occasionally as the outside material. It may be quarter-sawed, if good logs are selected. The chair factories in North Carolina use about 44,000,000 feet of oak yearly, and Spanish oak supplies a rather large share of the material. It is employed as interior finish in that state, and also for mission furniture, brackets for telegraph and telephone poles, refrigerators, and kitchen safes.

Slack coopers and manufacturers of boxes and crates find the wood suitable for their wares; but its open pores stand in the way of its use for tight cooperage.

Similar uses of the wood occur in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and it may be a.s.sumed that they occur also in all other portions of Spanish oak's range. It goes to wagon shops in Texas where it is subst.i.tuted for red oak. It is employed also in the manufacture of rice hullers and cotton gins. Lumbermen in northern Louisiana use log trucks with axles, felloes, and other heavy parts of Spanish oak, and it is frequently preferred for stone wagons.

In practically all large shipments of southern red oak to the North, some Spanish oak is mixed. It could not be otherwise, since this wood is cut in the forest with other red oaks, is sawed and stocked with them, and goes with them to market.

BLACK JACK OAK (_Quercus marilandica_) is one of the scrub trees of this country, and few good words are ever heard for it; yet it has redeeming qualities. Lumbermen have not paid much attention to it and never will, for only when at its best is the trunk large enough for any kind of sawlog, and there has been little inclination to use it for anything else. It attains size fitting it for fence posts, and sometimes it performs service along that line; but the small trunks are nearly all sapwood, and decay strikes them quickly. The bark is black, hence the name, and it is exceedingly rough, and is broken in squares. The leaves are large and pear-shaped, with the broad end opposite the stem. Some are slightly lobed. A vigorous black jack oak, standing in open ground, presents a fine appearance. The crown is wide and is frequently conical, the limbs small, and are set in the trunk on nearly horizontal lines.

The range of this unloved species covers 600,000 or more square miles, beginning in New York, running west to central Nebraska, south through Texas nearly to the Rio Grande, and in Florida to Tampa. It is not an aggressive tree and has permitted itself to be crowded off the good land until it has formed the habit of occupying geographical left-overs in the form of sand banks and wornout fields. In the northeastern part of its range it is often a.s.sociated with scrub pine (_Pinus virginiana_), because the two have similar habits and are content to live in perpetual poverty on dry gravel or thin sand. Large trunks are not possible under such circ.u.mstances, and first-cla.s.s wood is unusual. Black jack oak at its best may attain a height of fifty feet and a diameter of eighteen inches, but it is oftener twenty feet high and six inches through. It grows with moderate rapidity and does not live long.

The annual rings are often indistinct. The wood is hard, heavy, and strong, and checks badly in seasoning. The medullary rays are broad and conspicuous, the wood dark brown in color, the sapwood lighter. This oak is very high in ash contents, more than one per cent of the dry weight of wood going to ashes when burned. The tree reaches its best development in the lower Mississippi valley, and in eastern Texas.

Comparatively few uses for it have been found. Cordwood cutters find it valuable where it abounds in sufficient quant.i.ty, and it has been burned for charcoal for iron foundries and blacksmith shops. Small amounts are occasionally found in wood-using factories in Texas, but only when logs with considerable heartwood can be procured. The sap is characterless and seems to be utterly rejected at the factory. Sometimes the rich brown of the heartwood is attractive, but more frequently the wood is ringed and splotched with different colors, not distributed in a way to give any artistic effect. When a satisfactory stick is found, it can be worked into bal.u.s.ters and small spindles which show grain well. It is also worked into broad panels made up of narrow, quarter-sawed strips, which exhibit the dark flecks of the wood to good advantage.

TRIDENT OAK (_Quercus tridentata_) is remarkable for its extreme scarcity, and is of no commercial importance. It was formerly found in Missouri--a single tree--which was afterwards destroyed. It occurs in Washtenaw county, Michigan. It appears that no report showing the character of the wood has been made.

LEA OAK (_Quercus leana_), which is believed to be a hybrid between yellow oak (_Quercus velutina_) and shingle oak (_Quercus imbricaria_), is interesting but not important. Trees are apt to stand alone, and far apart. They occur from District of Columbia to Missouri, and south to North Carolina. The range is imperfectly known.

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LAUREL OAK

[Ill.u.s.tration: LAUREL OAK]

LAUREL OAK

(_Quercus Laurifolia_)

This representative of the black oak group is found nowhere except in the southeastern states, and only in their borders. It never ranges far inland, but sticks to wet localities and the margins of swamps where its a.s.sociates are tupelo, southern white cedar, cypress, magnolias, and, near its southern limit, myrtle and other semi-tropical trees and shrubs. It is sometimes utilized as an ornament, but that is not its usual function. It is not a successful compet.i.tor as a shade tree with willow oak and water oak.

Beginning at the border of the Dismal Swamp in Virginia as the northern limit of growth, this interesting tree ranges southward along the coast to Cape Romano in Florida and westward in the lower Gulf states to southeastern Louisiana. It is seen at its best in eastern Florida. It puts forth a vigorous growth on the hummock land in the southern part of that state, where it develops a shapely trunk when in crowded stands. It grows well in very rocky ground.

Although the common name laurel oak is prompted by its foliage, the tree bears various other sectional names. It is known as laurel oak in North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida; Darlington oak in South Carolina; willow oak in Florida and South Carolina; water oak in Georgia. The latter name has a tendency to confuse it with another species which is properly called water oak (_Quercus nigra_).

The ornamental qualities of this tree are due to the tall stately bole, its shapely and symmetrical round-topped head and slender branches and twigs. It sometimes attains the dignity of one hundred feet in height with a proportionate diameter of three or four feet. The bark is firm, of dark, reddish-brown color, and usually is not fissured but finely broken into small close, scale-like plates. On old trees, especially at the b.u.t.t, deep fissures divide it into broad ridges. The buds are shiny brown, and they narrow abruptly to an acute point. The acorns are either sessile or have short stalks, and they usually grow alone. They are short and broad, and are incased in shallow, thin cups. In the flowering season hairy aments add to the attractiveness of the tree. The leaves are dark green above and lighter on the lower surface and are grouped rather closely on the twigs. They attain a length of four inches or less, and fall gradually after turning yellow.

Laurel oak seems to be little used. It is occasionally referred to as rather inferior to other members of the black oak group, but it is not apparent why it bears that reputation. It may be on account of its poor seasoning qualities. Like other southern oaks, it is very heavy when green, and it is inclined to shrink and warp while in the process of parting with its moisture. If this can be successfully overcome, the wood ought to be valuable. Tests made on four samples cut on St. John's river, Florida, recorded in Sargent's tables, show remarkable results.

The wood is 34 per cent stronger and 37 per cent stiffer than white oak, and is only one pound heavier per cubic foot of dry wood. If these values are fairly representative of the wood of laurel oak, it should be exceptionally valuable in vehicle making. It would fall considerably below hickory, but would stand very high among other woods, and could be recommended for wagon axles, tongues, and other parts of heavy vehicles.

It should be borne in mind, however, that tests alone, and particularly when the number of samples is small, are not sufficient to decide a wood's place as a manufacturing material. It must be tried in actual practice, and that has not yet been done in the case of laurel oak as a wagon wood. When tried out it may exhibit defects, or undesirable qualities, which are not apparent in samples employed in laboratory tests.

There is little exact information available in regard to the supply of laurel oak in the South. It is not abundant in the sense that willow oak and Texan red oak are. Neither are the trees generally of good form for lumber. Little has ever been cut, because the land where it grows is not demanded for agriculture. It occupies out-of-the-way places, and the hunter and fisherman are better acquainted with it than the lumberman.

HIGHLAND OAK (_Quercus wislizeni_) is a California evergreen with leaves commonly shaped like holly, but sometimes their edges are smooth with no sign of teeth. The foliage remains longer on this tree than is usual with evergreen oaks. Old leaves generally fall within a month after the new crop appears; but those of highland oak remain several months longer, gradually falling during the second summer. When the tree is at its best it is a splendid representative of the vegetable kingdom. Its form does not please lumbermen, for the trunk is short and rough; but the crown rises seventy or eighty feet, is symmetrical, the foliage dark green, and the general appearance is that of an enormous holly tree.

Trunks are sometimes five or six feet in diameter. The name highland oak is somewhat misleading, though the species ascends to an alt.i.tude of 6,000 feet or more. It is described as a highland tree to distinguish it from the California live oak (_Quercus agrifolia_) which grows in the vicinity of the sea in California. The highland oak ranges from northern California to the international boundary, following the foothills of the mountain ranges. It occurs in dry river bottoms and washes and in desert mountain canyons. It is not choice as to soil but will grow in loam, sand, gravel, or among rocks. It is not abundant.

When it grows near the sea it is apt to lose its tree form and become a shrub. It a.s.sumes that form on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands off the coast of southern California. It grows slowly and is tenacious of life.

When it has once secured a foothold it hangs on with determination, though exposed to severe storms and inhospitable conditions. The acorns do not mature until late in the autumn of their second year. They are sometimes an inch and a half long, and scarcely a third of an inch thick. The wood of this oak possesses some good qualities which are locally appreciated by wagon makers who use it for repair work. It is extensively cut for fuel, and it burns about like eastern white oak, but leaves more ashes. The dry wood weighs 49 pounds per cubic foot. It is considerably weaker than white oak and is less elastic. The summerwood const.i.tutes a large part of the annual growth ring. It is very porous, the rows of pores running parallel with the medullary rays. This part of the wood structure is midway between that of deciduous and the evergreen oaks. The medullary rays are broad but short. When exposed on a tangential surface, they are from one-fourth to one-half inch long, and give the wood a flecked appearance. Exposed in cross section, they are from one inch to four inches in length. This applies, of course, only to large rays, easily seen with the naked eye. In quarter-sawed lumber, the rays have a pinkish color and glossy l.u.s.ter which are not pleasing. This tree belongs in the cla.s.s with those which are in no danger of being extirpated by human agencies. It occupies land which man does not need and will never want.

MYRTLE OAK (_Quercus myrtifolia_) a.s.sociates with the laurel oak in some parts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and closely resembles it, though it is smaller, and gives little promise of ever becoming important in a commercial way. It is clearly in the scrub oak cla.s.s, and does not approach the dignity of even a small tree in most of its range. Few specimens can be found exceeding a height of twenty feet and a diameter of five or six inches. Trees approaching that size grow in western Florida in the region of the Apalachicola river. Generally this oak covers dry, sandy ridges and islands, and is shrubby. It forms thickets on some of the islands off the coast of Alabama and Mississippi, and extends its range westward to the low, southern parts of Louisiana where the dwarf trees are almost hidden by tall reeds and gra.s.s. Its name refers to the leaf it bears. It is impossible that man can ever make much use of this tree.

MOREHUS OAK (_Quercus morehus_) can never be important in the lumber industry, but it fills a few places in California where the ground needs a cover. Its range is in the northern coast range and the Sierra foothills, extending as far south as Kings river. The edges of the leaves bear bent hooks like saw teeth. The foliage falls in late winter. Trees are occasionally a foot or more in diameter. The wood has not the appearance of possessing much value, and is too scarce to be important. The most interesting thing connected with this tree is that it is supposed to be a hybrid--a cross between highland oak and California black oak. It was first found in 1863, and a considerable range has since been established for it.

It is the opinion of some investigators that new tree species have their origin in crosses between existing species. Of the countless thousands of such crosses a few, at long intervals of time, may develop characteristics which enable them to maintain their existence and to spread into new territory. If that occurs, a new kind of tree has appeared on earth and is ready to take its place among the established forests of the region. Cross-fertilization among trees and plants is very common, but so many adverse conditions are encountered, that few hybrids ever amount to anything.

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PIN OAK

[Ill.u.s.tration: PIN OAK]

PIN OAK

(_Quercus Pal.u.s.tris_)

Pin oak ranges from certain sections of Ma.s.sachusetts, notably the Connecticut river valley, and near Amherst, westward as far as the southeastern part of Missouri; on the south it is found along the lower Potomac river in Virginia, in Kentucky, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.

It is known as pin oak in Ma.s.sachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Kansas; in Arkansas and Kansas it is called swamp Spanish oak; in Rhode Island and Illinois it is often known as water oak; in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kansas as swamp oak; in Arkansas as water Spanish oak.

The name pin oak is said to belong to this tree because of a peculiarity of its branches. They leave the trunk and the larger limbs at nearly right angles, and criss-cross in all directions, resembling pins thrust into the wood, and bristling outward at every angle. The crowding to which they are subjected kills many of them as the tree reaches middle age, but the stubs do not drop quickly, and as many of the characteristic pins appear to be present as ever. Such is the usual explanation given to account for the name, and the facts fit the theory; but the fact that several other species are called pin oaks is not accounted for. The habit of the branches of all of them is not the same.

The Gambel oak in its Arizona range has that name. So has the chinquapin oak in Arkansas and Texas, but that is apparently a shortening of its true name, the last syllable only being used. They call the Durand oak pin oak in Texas, but without any known reason.

The botanical name _pal.u.s.tris_, belonging to this species, refers to the tree's habit of growing in swamps and damp land along river bottoms. It is not a swamp tree as cypress is, but is more like swamp white oak, and finds its most congenial surroundings on the borders of streams and on fairly well drained lowland where roots readily reach water.

The leaves are three or five inches long, are simple, and alternate.

They are broad, and have from five to nine lobes which are toothed, and bristle-tipped on the ends. The sinuses are broad and rounded, and extend well toward the midrib, which is stout, and from which the veins branch off conspicuously. In color the leaves are bright green above and lighter below when young, becoming thin, firm and darker green at maturity; late in autumn they turn a rich, deep scarlet. They are coated below with p.u.b.escence, and have large tufts of pale hairs in the axils of the veins.