II 1. THE POST OR ROUGH OAK. 133 



It has not previously been known to occur in Massachusetts. 

 Michaux found it most abundant in Kentucky, Tennessee, and 

 on the Missouri. 



It is called pin oak, in Stockbridge and Sheffield, from its use 

 in making wooden pins or treenails, for which purpose it is pre- 

 ferred to every other material. The wood of this oak is very 

 solid and stiff, and approaches, in durability, that of the white 

 oak. It is said to be less elastic and tough than white oak, but 

 more solid and smoother-grained. It is used for the axles, 

 reaches, bolsters, and braces of wagons ; for framing timbers, 

 for sills and for floors ; and for all the other purposes for which 

 the best oak wood is employed. As fuel, it is preferred to 

 white oak. 



The beauty of this tree, the abundance and luxuriance of its 

 foliage, and the extraordinary size of its acorns, recommend 

 it to the landscape gardener ; the value of its wood, to the 

 forester. 



Sp. 3. Post Oak or Rough Oak. Quercus stellata. Willdenow. 



Q. obtusiloba. Michaux.. 



Leaves and fruit figured in Michaux ; Sylva, Plate 5 ; in Abbot's Insects of 

 Georgia, I, Plate 47, and II, 77; also on Plate 3, of this volume. 



I have found this oak nowhere in Massachusetts, except on 

 the Elizabeth Islands, where, particularly on Martha's Vine- 

 yard, it is very abundant, and is called the rough oak, from 

 the roughness of its leaves. It resembles the white oak, but is 

 distinguished at once by its mode of branching, by the density 

 of its foliage, and by the stiffness and peculiar form of its rough 

 leaves. It there grows rarely above twenty-five or thirty feet 

 high, and eighteen or twenty inches in diameter. The trunk is 

 covered by a rough, hard, grayish-white bark, broken by deep 

 crevices into oblong portions, usually scattered with whitish 

 and black lichens. The branches are numerous, low, at right 

 angles, and very crooked, and being crowded near the base, give 

 the appearance of the top of a tree whose trunk is under ground. 

 The shoots of this year's growth are long and covered with a 

 whitish and downy bark The leaf-stalks very short. The 



