The pin oak has foliage much like the scarlet oak, but coarser and not so
lustrous. Often a pin oak tree has leaves that approach the red oak in
form, and these lead to confusion, if leaves alone are consulted in
determining the name of the tree. There are better signs in any pin oak
that set it apart from its larger-leaved relative. Consult the acorns.
They are plump little nuts, as broad as long, rarely measuring one-half
inch either way, pale brown, streaked with black in straight lines, down
from the pointed tips, and they sit in shallow, saucer-like cups made of
close reddish scales. As they fall, the nuts roll out of the cups, which
are lined with hair. The kernel is white and bitter and yet, late in
winter, it is very common to find them gnawed open by some hungry little
four-foot, whose winter store threatens to run short.
The pin oak takes its name from the fact that its branches are thickly
set with short, pin-like twigs, many of which die but do not fall. These
stubs stay on for several years. This fact alone will soon enable us to
recognise the tree from a distance. No other species is so close-twigged,
and the symmetrical form of this tree is very striking in the winter. It
is a pyramid with many small branches thrust out horizontally from the
main shaft. Below the middle of the tree, the long branches have a
downward thrust, and the lowest ones often sweep the ground. Above the
middle of the tree the branches are horizontal, and they gradually become
shorter, and the tree ends in a pointed tip. There is no oak that I know
which has so much the pyramidal form of evergreens like the firs,
hemlocks, and spruces.
On the avenues of the city of Washington, we shall find superb double
rows of American trees. On one which leads to the Navy Yard, I remember
the beautiful pin oaks, uniform in size, perfect in symmetry, that stood
in a double row along the sides of the avenue. To the crowds of tourists
who visit the capital city every year, I hope that this will be an object
lesson. In most towns and cities every owner plants the trees he likes in
front of his house, so our streets and avenues present a mixture of trees
of all ages, sizes, kinds, and conditions. The better way is for the city
to plant the same tree in double lines, the whole length of a street, as
has of late years been done in Washington. One needs only to see these
trees coming on, each year adding beauty and dignity to the city, to
realise that such planting may be done easily anywhere in the country,
where trees as beautiful as the pin oaks grow wild.