276 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



analogous in soil, and abounds in the post oak ; but nearer the 

 sea the oak becomes rare and is only seen in the lowest parts of 

 the swamps, about the plantations, and on tracts that have been 

 exhausted by cultivation and abandoned. 



The height of the post oak rarely exceeds 40 or 50 feet, with 

 a diameter of 15 inches. Its summit, even when compressed 

 in the forests, is disproportionably large, owing probably to an 

 early division of the trunk into several limbs, with which the 

 secondary branches form more open angles than is common on 

 other trees. The branches are also bent into elbows at certain 

 distances, which give so peculiar an appearance to the tree that 

 it is easily distinguished when the leaves are fallen. The bark 

 upon the trunk is thin and of a grayish white. The leaves are 

 borne by short petioles, and are divided into four or five rounded 

 lobes, of which the two nearest the summit are the broadest $ 

 they are coriaceous, of a dusky green above and grayish beneath. 

 Toward autumn the ribs are of a rosy tint, instead of a purplish 

 red like those of the scarlet oak. The fructification is annual 

 and seldom fails. It puts forth flowers in May, which are 

 followed by small, oval acorns, covered for a third of their length, 

 with a slightly rugged, grayish cup. They are very sweet, and 

 form a delicious food for squirrels and wild turkeys ; hence the 

 tree is sometimes called Turkey Oak. 



The wood of this tree is yellowish, with no tint of red. 

 Growing upon a less humid soil it is less elastic, but finer-grained, 

 stronger and more durable, than the white oak : hence it is 

 ^referred for posts, and it is used with advantage by wheelwrights 

 and coopers. In ship building it is used principally for the knees, 

 ind is admitted into the lower part of the frame. It rarely 

 furnishes side planks or timber of considerable length, for this 

 reason it is less esteemed than the white oak. The staves made 

 of this tree are preferable to those of the white oak. 



