=Bark.=--Trunk and larger branches light ash-gray, sometimes nearly white, broken into long, thin, loose, irregular, soft-looking flakes; in old trees with broad, flat ridges; inner bark light; branchlets ash-gray, mottled; young shoots grayish-green, roughened with minute rounded, raised dots. =Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds 1/8 to 1/4 inch long, round-ovate, reddish-brown. Leaves simple, alternate, 3-7 inches long, 2-4 inches wide, delicately reddish-tinted and pubescent upon both sides when young; at maturity glabrous, light dull or glossy green above, paler and somewhat glaucous beneath, turning to various reds in autumn; outline obovate to oval; lobes 5-9; ascending, varying greatly in different trees; when few, short and wide-based, with comparatively shallow sinuses; when more in number, ovate-oblong, with deeper sinuses, or somewhat linear-oblong, with sinuses reaching nearly to midrib; apex of lobe rounded; base of leaf tapering; leafstalks short; stipules linear, soon falling. The leaves of this species are often persistent till spring, especially in young trees. =Inflorescence.=--May. Appearing when the leaves are half grown; sterile catkins 2-3 inches long, with slender, usually pubescent thread; calyx yellow, pubescent; lobes 5-9, pointed: pistillate flowers sessile or short-peduncled, reddish, ovate-scaled. =Fruit.=--Maturing in the autumn of the first year, single, or more frequently in pairs, sessile or peduncled: cup hemispherical to deep saucer-shaped, rather thin; scales rough-knobby at base: acorn varying from 1/2 inch to an inch in length, oblong-ovoid: meat sweet and edible, said to be when boiled a good substitute for chestnuts. =Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in New England; grows well in all except very wet soils, in all open exposures and in light shade; like all oaks, difficult to transplant unless prepared by frequent transplanting in nurseries, from which it is not readily obtainable in quantity; grows very slowly and nearly uniformly up to maturity; comparatively free from insect enemies but occasionally disfigured by fungous disease which attacks immature leaves in spring. Propagated from seed. [Illustration: PLATE XXXVII.--Quercus alba.] 1. Winter buds. 2. Flowering branch. 3-4. Sterile flower, front view. 5. Fertile flower, side view. 6. Fruiting branch. 7-8. Variant leaves. =Quercus stellata, Wang.= _Q. obtusiloba, Michx. Q. minor, Sarg_. POST OAK. BOX WHITE OAK. =Habitat and Range.= Doubtfully reported from southern Ontario. In New England, mostly in sterile soil near the sea-coast; Massachusetts,--southern Cape Cod from Falmouth to Brewster, the most northern station reported, occasional; the islands of Naushon, Martha's Vineyard where it is rather common, and Nantucket where it is rare; Rhode Island,--along the shore of the northern arm of Wickford harbor (L. W. Russell); Connecticut,--occasional along the shores of Long Island sound west of New Haven.