138 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Sp. 6. The Rock Chestnut Oak. Quercus montana. Willdenow. 



Figured in Audubon's Birds, Plate 131 ; leaves and fruit figured in Abbot's 

 Insects of Georgia, II, Plate 82 ; in Michaux ; Sylva, Plate 9 ; and in this 

 volume, Plate 6. 



This oak is by no means frequent in the State, and where 

 found, it is usually confined to small districts on rocky hills. 

 It is called sometimes the rock oak, or, more frequently, the 

 chestnut oak, and has great resemblance to the chestnut tree in 

 its general appearance and mode of growth. I have found large 

 forests of it in South Attleboro', small patches in Middleboro', 

 in Sterling and Lancaster, larger ones in Erving's Grant, and 

 that neighborhood, and detached clumps in various places in 

 the hill country, on both sides of Connecticut River. It is found 

 in New Hampshire and Vermont, and is abundant on the Alle- 

 ghany Mountains. 



I have never found it growing to a large size, but usually 

 between one and two feet in diameter, and forty to sixty feet 

 high. One in Sterling measured six feet two inches, at three 

 feet from the ground. The trunk is covered with a dark, red- 

 dish-gray bark, often spotted with whitish lichens. The bark 

 is somewhat lighter than that of the chestnut tree, and less 

 rough than that of most other oaks, resembling that of the red 

 oak, but smoother. The clefts are long, but not deep, and 

 near each other, and rather smooth on their sides. The 

 branches are not very numerous, making a sharper angle than 

 in the oaks above-mentioned ; and the ultimate divisions are very 

 small. The bark is very compact. 



The leaves vary considerably in size and shape, — being from 

 four to nine inches long, and two to five wide. They are borne 

 on very short footstalks, obtuse and often unequal at base, some- 

 times broadest at the middle, but more frequently towards the 

 extremity, with from six to thirteen large, rounded teeth on each 

 side, which often end in a small hard point, the termination of 

 the parallel nerves, which are connected by finely reticulated, 

 parallel veins ; they are of a polished green above, much lighter, 

 and, in a young state, downy beneath. 



