The leaves of the chinquapin oak are from five to seven inches long, simple and alternate; they have a taper-pointed apex and blunt, wedge-shaped or pointed base; are sharply toothed. When unfolding they show bright bronze-green above, tinged with purple, and are covered underneath with light silvery down; at maturity they become thick and firm, showing greenish-yellow on the upper surface and silvery-white below. The midrib is conspicuous and the veins extending outward to the points of the teeth are well-defined. In autumn the leaves turn orange and scarlet and are very showy. The leaves are narrow, hardly two inches wide, and more nearly resemble those of the chestnut than do any other oak leaves. In their broadest forms they are also similar to those of the true chestnut oak, although the difference in the quality and color of the bark, and of the leaves, would prevent either tree from being mistaken for the other. They are crowded at the ends of the branches and hang in such a manner as to show their under surfaces with every touch of breeze. This characteristic gives the chinquapin oak a peculiar effect of constantly shifting color which is one of its most attractive features and which puts the observer in mind of the trembling aspen, although the shading and coloring of the oak is much more striking. This tree’s range extends from northern New York, along Lake Champlain and the Hudson river westward through southern Ontario, and southward into parts of Nebraska and Kansas; on its eastern boundary it extends as far south as the District of Columbia and along the upper Potomac; the growth west of the Alleghany mountains reaches into central Alabama and Mississippi, through Arkansas and the northern portion of Louisiana to the eastern part of Oklahoma and parts of Texas even to the canyons of the Guadalupe mountains, in the extreme western part of that state. It is a timber tree of much importance in Texas, and in 1910 manufacturers reported the use of 1,152,000 feet in that state, largely for making furniture and vegetable crates. The chinquapin oak is named from the form of its leaf. Its acorn bears no resemblance to the nut of chinquapin. Trees average smaller in size than white oak, but when all circumstances are favorable they compare well with any of the other oaks. In the lower Wabash valley, trees of this species were found in the original forests 160 feet high and four or five in diameter. When it grows in crowded stands it develops a tall, symmetrical trunk, clear of limbs; but it is shorter in open growth. The base is often much buttressed.