S38 



UNITED STATES 



dwarf scion bearing oak (chenes nains stoloniferes), 

 "vvhose multiplied suckers cover vast tracts of country. 

 The meadows (savannas) situated in the middle of 

 the forests of this continent, are burned annually by 

 the savages and by the new settlers, for the purpose 

 of renewing the grass, attractingfdeer, and pasturing 

 cattle. The fire spreading thence into the woods 

 and destroying the great trees, the horizontal roots 

 of several species of oak detached from the trunk re-, 

 produce themselves, and separately, shoots which, 

 produce fruit afterwards when not more than two or 

 three feet high. Every bundle or assemblage of 

 these shoots, from the same root (souche) may be 

 considered as a dwarf tree ; or without stem (tige) ; 

 for the fire, in consuming these trees down to the 

 root, produces the same effect that the cutting off the 

 stem and trimming does in cultivated pear trees^ 

 which otherwise would have become tall trees, but 

 which, by these repeated operations, are made t» 

 remain dwarfs, and to put forth fruit-bearing 

 branches near their very roots. 



Several travellers not having had time to observe 

 these oaks with sufficient care, have taken them t® 

 be particular species ; but those whose acorns have 

 been planted, have sent forth, like all others, a de- 

 scending root, without producing suckers ; whence 

 it seems probable there are no stoloniferous oaks. 



Oaks present numerous -varieties^ and the deter- 

 mination of the sp-ccies to which they belong is at- 

 tended with great difficulties. Frequently an inter- 

 mediate variety appears so to approximate two spe- 

 cies, that it is difficult to determine, from an exami- 

 nation of the leaves, to which of the two species the 



