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RUNNING OAK. 
GIuercus pumila. Q. foins decîduîs, lanceolatîs, întegerrîmîs, basî attenuatîs, 
apice dilatatis ; cupulâ scutellatâ ; glande subhemisphæricâ. 
Quercus sericea, Willd. 
This species, whicli is rarely more than 20 inches in height and 2 lines 
in diameter, is the smallest Oak hitherto discovered in the Old or the New 
World. Like the Upland Willow-Oak, it is confined to the maritime parts 
of the Carolinas, Georgia and the Floridas, where it is called Running Oak. 
It springs with that species in the pme-baiTens, amid the numerous varieties 
of Whortleberry and other plants w'hich overspread the ground wherever 
there is a little moisture in the soil and the layer of vegetable mould is a 
few inches thick. 
The leaves of this dwarfish shrub are of a reddish tint in the spring, and 
turn green as the season advances. When fully developed they are entire, 
smooth, of an elongated oval shape, and about 2 inches in length. The 
acorns are small, round, and similar to those of the Willow and Water 
Oaks; they are few” in number, because the stem is burnt to the surface of 
the ground almost every spring, by the fire which is kindled in the forests 
to consume the dead grass ; as this species belongs to the division whose 
fructification is biennial, the acorns are destroyed before they arrive at 
maturity. 
My own observations, and those of Messrs. Bose and Delille, distin- 
guished botanists who resided several years in the Southern part of the 
United States, have led me to consider the Running Oak as a distinct 
species, and not as a variety of the Willow Oak, as my father has treated 
it in his monography of this important genus. It is hardly necessary to 
remark that from its size it can be interesting only to botanists. 
PLATE XVII. 
branch with leaves and fruit of the natural size. 
