198 THE TREE BOOK 



streets, if not tlie gate," of many of our cities, 

 and as we have seen, there is much about the 

 tree to make it worthy of preservation. It is of 

 no value as a timber tree. Its beauty and the 

 delight the huge nuts are to the small boys, is its 

 only excuse for being. The second excuse may 

 seem a slim one indeed. But ask the lad who 

 has bounced them on a string, and finally shot 

 them upward to dangle in a snarl from a tree 

 or a telegraph wire ! 



The chinquapin is the "chestnut" tree of the 

 South. It is a short, round-headed tree, with 

 wide-spreading branches in woodlands where it 

 is not crowded. In the Ozarks we find it spring- 

 ing up in thickets on every wooded hillside. 

 The bark is smooth, granite-gray on young 

 trees, and shows interesting patches of light 

 and dark as the sun strikes it. Old trees wear 

 deeply ridged coats. The leaflets follow the 

 compound five or seven ranking plan. They 

 are oblong, feather-veined, and "conspicuously 

 serrate," — that is they have many short, sharp 

 teeth which point forward. They are a rich 

 green above but below a dense white fuzz light- 

 ens their shade many tones. The prickly brown 

 burrs hang in clusters, and we have found from 

 experience that, if we want the nuts they con- 

 tain, we cannot wait for Jack Frost's uncertain 



