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PIN OAK. 
Q,uercus palustris. Q.foliis profundè sinuatis, glabris, sinubus latis ; fructu 
parvo ; cupulâ scutellatâ, levi ; glande subglobosâ. 
This species, like the preceding, grows in Massachusetts, but is less 
common than in the vicinity of New York, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania 
and Maryland. I saw it abundant beyond the mountains near Pittsburg 
in Ohio, and in East Tennessee, and my father found it multiplied in the 
country of the Illinois : I feel assured that it does not exist in Maine, Ver- 
mont and the Southern States. It is called Pin Oak in the lower part of 
New York and in New Jersey, and Swamp Spanish Oak in Pennsylvania, 
Delaware and Maryland. The last of these denominations is sufhciently 
appropriate ; but I have preferred the second, because it is less liable to 
mistake, and is indicative of a characteristic arrangement of the branches. 
The Pin Oakis a tall tree, which grows constantly in moist places, 
and prefers the swamps enclosed in the forests. In these situations 
it is frequently more than 80 feet high and 3 or 4 feet in diameter. 
Its secondary branches are more slender and numerous than is common on 
so large a tree, and are intermingled so as to give it at a distance the 
appearance of being stuffed. This singular disposition renders it distin- 
guishable at first sight in the winter, and is perhaps the cause of its being 
called Pin Oak. The leaves are smooth, of a pleasing green, supported 
by long petioles, deeply laciniated and very similar to those of the Scarlet 
Oak, from, which they differ principally in their proportions. The acorns 
are small, round, and contained in flat shallow cups, of which the scales 
are closely applied one upon another. 
The bark upon the oldest trunk is scarcely cracked, and consists almost 
wholly of a very thick cellular tissue. The wood is coarse-grained, 
with the pores open and larger than those of the Scarlet and Red Oaks ; 
though stronger and more tenacious than those species, it is little esteemed 
for durability. It is used for the shafts of mill-wheels when White Oak 
of sufficient dimensions cannot be procured ; it is also sometimes, though 
rarely, made into staves, as the species is little multiplied compared with 
the Scarlet, Red and Black Oaks. 
The Pin Oak, in its youth, assumes an agreeable pyramidal shape, and 
its light elegant foliage contributes greatly to its beauty. It deserves a 
conspicuous place in parks and gardens. It should never be deprived of 
its interior branches. The most beautiful stock of this species with which 
I am acquainted in Europe, is in a garden near Antwerp ; it was about 20 
