308 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



thus in New Jersey, where the tree is only thirty feet high and 

 four or five inches thick, they are three Iohed, except a few on 

 the summit, and not falcated as on the large stocks in the Southern 

 Slates. On young plants, and on the lower branches of the most 

 vigorous stocks crowing in moist and shaded situations, they are 

 also trilobed ; and on the upper limbs they are more acutely 

 laciniated, with the sections more arching than those represented 

 in the figure. One of their constant characters is a thick down 

 upon the lower side of the leaves and upon the young shoots to 

 which they are attached. This tree fructifies once in two years. 

 Its flowers put forth in May and are succeeded by small, round 

 acorns, of a brown color, and contained in slightly scaly, shallow 

 cups supported by peduncles one or two lines in length. They 

 resemble those of the bear oak, and, like them, preserve for a 

 long time the capability of germination. 



The bark upon the trunk of the Spanish oak is blackish and 



deeply furrowed, with a cellular integument of middling thickness. 



The wood is reddish and coarse-grained, with empty pores, and 



all the characteristic properties of the species known in commerce 



by the general name of Red Oak : hence its staves are fit only 



to contain molasses, salted provisions and dry goods. From its 



want of durability, this oak is less esteemed than the white oak, 



the post oak and other species of annual fructification. It is 



rarely employed in building, and is used by eartwrigbts in 



preference to white oak for the felloes of large wheels. Its bark 



is preferred to that of most other species of oak for tanning coarse 



leather, which it renders whiter and more supple ; the leather is 



said to be improved by the addition of a small quantity of the 



bark of the hemlock spruce. 



