7 
SMALL LEAVED OAK. 
QUERCUS *dumosa; ramis gracilibus pubesoentibus ; foliis 
rotundato-ovalibus subsessilibus spinoso-dentatis glabrius- 
culis , subtus villosis concoloribus. 
I observed this species to form entangled thickets 
over the base of the hills which flank the village of Sta. 
Barbara, in Upper California. It attains the height of 
4 to 6 feet, is of a very unsightly appearance, forming 
what we should call scrub-oak thickets, of considerable 
extent, over a barren and rocky soil, which denies sus- 
tenance to almost everything else; the branches divide 
into many irregular straggling and almost naked slender 
twigs, clothed with a whitish smooth bark. The leaves 
are evergreen, small, and wholly resemble those of the 
Quercus coccifera , but are somewhat pubescent above and 
softly so beneath; the young twigs are also hairy, with 
a persisting pubescence. Being unable to discover upon 
it at the season I visited that country (in the month of 
April) either flowers or fruit, I am unable to give a 
figure of it that would be at all interesting. 
