DENDROLOGY. 263 



and are followed by acorns, which are contained in shallow, 

 slightly scaly cups ; they are brown, small and extremely bitter. 

 This tree fructifies once in two years. 



The bark upon the oldest trunks of the water oak is smooth 

 and very slightly furrowed ; it is little used in tanning, either 

 because it is inferior to that of the Spanish oak, or because the 

 tree is less abundant. The wood is very tough, but less durable 

 and less esteemed by carpenters and wheelwrights than that of 

 the white oak and chesnut white oak. 



Bear Oak. Quercus banisteri. 



This diminutive species is known in the Northern and Middle 

 States by the name of Bear Oak, Black Scrub Oak and Dwarf 

 Oak, of which the first is most common in New Jersey, where 

 it is abundant. This shrub is common in New York, New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania, particularly on that part of the Alleghanies 

 which is crossed by the road to Pittsburgh. It is seldom found 

 insulated or mingled with other trees in the forests, but always 

 in tracts of many acres, which it covers almost exclusively. 



The ordinary height of the bear oak is 3 or 4 feet ; but when 

 accidentally insulated and nourished by a vein of more fertile 

 soil, it sometimes equals eight or ten feet. It usually grows in 

 compact masses, which are traversed with difficulty, though no 

 higher than the waist. As the individuals. which compose them 

 are of an uniform height, they form so even a surface that at a 

 distance the ground appears to be covered with grass instead of 

 shrubs. The stem, which is numerously ramified, is covered, 

 like the branches, with a polished bark. It has more strength 

 than would be supposed from its size, which is rarely more than 

 an inch in diameter. The leaves are of a dark green color on 

 the upper surface, whitish beneath, and regularly divided into 

 three or five lobes. The flowers appear in May, and it fructifies 

 once in two years. The acorns are small, blackish, and longi- 

 tudinally marked with a few reddish lines : they are so abundant 

 as sometimes to cover the branches ; the lowly stature of the 



