IT. 1, THE BEAR OAK. 151 
on each side, the larger ones below the middle of the leaf, the 
lobes ending in a bristle, or often entire, four or five-angled, as 
broad as long; of a deep shiny green color and smooth above, 
whitish or ashen-downy beneath, the down abundant in the 
axils of the veins. 
The leaves are about two and one-half inches long, and one 
and one-quarter or one and one-half broad, on petioles often 
very short, often one-half or three-fourths the length of the leaf. 
The acorns are often beautifully striped longitudinally. The 
base of the acorn, where it is attached to the cup, is of a deep 
orange, as is the kernel. 
The sterile flowers are in thread-like catkins, one to two inches 
Jong, on the base of the recent shoots, or scattered profusely 
along last year’s shoot, in the axils of last year’s leaves. 
Thread downy; calyx hairy; segments rounded or tor; 
stamens four, on short filaments. 
Fertile flowers in the axil of the recent leaves, nearly sessile ; 
perianth downy ; the three stigmas prominent, divergent. 
Leaf-stalks, under surface of the leaves and recent shoots, 
covered with a soft, grayish down. 
The bear oak 1s generally considered of very little value, and 
is often regarded as a nuisance. It might, doubtless, be turned 
tosome advantage. It grows readily in the most exposed situa- 
tions and poorest soils, and produces a great abundance of fruit. 
Michaux suggests that 1t might be usefully employed as a hedge, 
by being sown in three parallel rows, ten or twelve inches 
apart. The plants would soon attain sufficient height and 
strength to serve as a barrier against cattle, and would be an 
agreeable object to the eye. It might also be employed to per- 
form the office which it often performs in nature, that of pro- 
tecting the young of more valuable trees, in the manner which 
has already been suggested in the description of the little chin- 
capin oak. 
The oaks found in New England naturally arrange them- 
selves in four groups, in the order, as far as I understand their 
character, in which I have described them. ‘To the first belongs 
the white oak, which is most nearly allied to the two varieties 
