DENDROLOGY. 265 



distinguished at a distance by the reddish color of its leaves 

 and male aments. 



The bark of this species, like that of the black oak, affords a 

 beautiful yellow dye; but the tree is so small and so little 

 multiplied that it is of no utility in this respect, not even for fuel. 



Barens Scrub Oak. Quercus catesbcei. 



This species is principally confined to the lower part of the 

 Carolines and Georgia. It grows in soils too meagre to sustain 

 any other vegetation, such as the vicinity of Wilmington in North 

 Carolina, where the light, moveable sand is wholly destitute of 

 vegetable mould. It is the only species multiplied in the pine- 

 barrens, and from this circumstance it seems to have derived its 

 name. 



The ordinary height of this tree is 20 or 25 feet with a 

 diameter of six or eight inches. Its foliage is open, and its leaves 

 are large, smooth, thick and coriaceous towards the close of 

 summer, deeply and irregularly laciniated, and supported by 

 short petioles. With the first frost they change to a dull red, 

 and fall the ensuing month. It blooms in May and fructifies 

 once in two years. The acorns are pretty large, of a blackish 

 color, and partly covered with a fine, gray dust, which is easily 

 rubbed off between the fingers : they are contained in thick cups, 

 swollen towards the edge, with the upper scales bent inwards. 



In the winter it is difficult to distinguish the scrub oak from 

 the blackjack oak, which it nearly resembles. Like that, it is 

 crooked, ramified at the height of two or three feet, and covered 

 with a thick, blackish, deeply-furrowed bark : it is, besides, 

 perfectly similar in the color, texture and weight of the wood. 

 This tree is considered as the best of fuel, and its size alone 

 would exclude it from use in the arts. 



34 



