140 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



we are speaking, were planted on many hills, which now bear 

 nothing but stunted cedars, they would meet with the soil they 

 want, and would flourish exceedingly well. 



Sp. 7. The Little Chincapin Oak. Quercus chinquapin* 



Michaux. 



Leaves and fruit figured in Michaux ; Sylva, Plate 11. 



This is much the smallest of the oak family which occurs in 

 New England, seldom rising above five feet, and usually only two 

 or three. It is found, scattered in almost every part of the State. 

 On Martha's Vineyard, it occupies, in some instances, many 

 acres together, to the exclusion of almost every thing else. It 

 is also abundant in some parts of Middlesex County. I have 

 found it and the bear oak, chiefly, but not exclusively, on sterile 

 soil. It produces great quantities of acorns, which seem to be 

 devoured with avidity by wild animals, and also by cattle and 

 swine. 



The recent shoots are of an olive or bronze green, smooth 

 and shining, channelled, and dotted with small orange or yellow 

 dots. The larger branches are of a light, shining, ashen gray; 

 the stem dark, almost black, clouded often with light patches of 

 membranaceous lichens. The fruit is borne on footstalks of 

 half an inch in length, from the axils of the leaves about the 

 middle of the recent shoots. The cup is often set with several 

 abortive acorns, which fall off when about one-fourth of an inch 

 long. The leaves are obovate, tapering gradually to a petiole 

 one-half to one inch long ; they are obtusely pointed, sometimes 

 nearly entire and sinuate on the border, usually with four to 

 eight large teeth on each side, which terminate in a blunt, 

 brownish, callous point; margin slightly revolute ; surface light 

 green and polished above, whitish or bluish, fine-downy be- 

 neath. 



The bitterness of the bark shows that it abounds in tannin ; 

 and it might, doubtless, be advantageously used by the tanner, 

 as the small branches of most of the oaks are in Europe. 



Where this little oak constitutes the principal growth, it 

 might easily be made to perform an important service. If the 



