206 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
poorest and most unprofitable soil, and if yielding neither timber 
nor fuel, nor subserving the purpose of ornament, make amends by 
the profusion of acorns they bear, by which the branches are often 
weighed down; and thus, whilst their nobler forest congeners dole 
out an often scanty and partly inaccessible repast to the expectant 
tribes roaming in quest of food at their feet, these diminutive oaks 
spread a banquet at once ample and accessible to all. 
The Bear Oak, so called from the fondness of those animals for 
its mast, here forms bushes from five or six feet in poor and dry, to 
eight or ten in moister and more fertile soil, and in woods; and 
were it not for the singular configuration of its leaves, which are 
peculiarly its own, might be supposed a young state of some other 
species. The branches are uncommonly tough, and the acorns as 
plentiful as in the Dwarf Chestnut Oak, which, in the adult state, 
is seldom above two feet in height. This last, with its weak 
slender, straggling stem, (for it cannot be termed a trunk, being 
often no thicker than the branches it gives off,) and its dispropor- 
tionately large leaves has the air of a sapling of some of the 
other oaks of the Prinos section, to which it belongs; but its 
constantly low stature, diffuse habit, and superabundant fruit, 
stamp it as an unquestionably permanent and distinct species. 
In crossing the North Valley, on our return home this evening; 
the air felt quite chilly. Mr. Townsend tells me that in this part of — 
the United States they are liable to frost in every month of the twelve, — 
and he remembers, some years ago, a fall of snow at West Chester — 
(Lat. 40°) on the 11th of May, which, by its suddenly melting as 
the sun acquired elevation, did much mischief to the fruit trees. — 
The night, though cold, was most lovely and moonlight, and en- — 
livened by the vociferous clamouring of the Katydids, that had just 
commenced their annual rehearsal of “the half suppressed—half 
sland’rous tale,” in the lofty trees along the road. B 
During our stay at West Chester, I accompaned Dr. Darlington a 
in an early morning stroll to the Serpentine Ridge, a short dis- — 
* A similar phenomenon, of which I was a witness, occurred in this island (Isle of 
* Wight) on the 14th of May, 1839, when the ground in various parts of it Was 
covered for some hours with snow, a few inches deep, till after mid-day. Pu 
