THE BASKET OAK.
Q. Michauxii, Nutt.
The basket oak is so like the preceding species as to be listed by some botanists as the southern form of Q. platanoides. They meet on a vague line that crosses Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Both have large leaves silver-lined, with undulating border, of the chestnut oak pattern. Both are trees of the waterside, tall, with round heads of gnarled limbs. The red-tinged white bark sets the basket oak apart from all others. Its head is broader and its trunk stouter than in the other species. The paired acorns are almost without stalks, the nuts large, the kernels sweet. In autumn, farmers turn their
hogs into the woods to fatten on this oak-mast. The edibility of these nuts may account for the common name, oak." The wood splits readily into thin, tough plates of the summer wood. This is because the layer formed in spring is very porous. Bushel baskets, china crates, and similar woven wares are made of these oak splints. The wood is also used in cooperage and implement construc tion, and it makes excellent firewood.