DENDROLOGY. 



293 



Live Oak. Quercus virens. 



plate xcr. 



Fi^. 1. A leaf. Fig. 2. The fruit. 



This species which is 

 confined to the maritime 

 parts of the Southern States, 

 the Floridas and Louisiana, 

 is known only by the name 

 of Live Oak. The climate 

 becomes mild enough for its 

 growth near Norfolk in Vir- 

 ginia, though it is less mul- 

 tiplied and less vigorous 

 than in a more southern 

 latitude. From Norfolk it 

 spreads along the coast for 

 a distance of fifteen or 

 eighteen hundred miles, 

 extending beyond the mouth 

 of the Mississippi. The sea 

 air seems essential to its existence, for it is rarely found in the 

 forests upon the main land, and never more than fifteen or twenty 

 miles from the shore. It is most abundant, the most fully 

 developed, and of the best quality, about the bays and creeks, 

 and on the fertile islands which in great numbers lie scattered 

 for several hundred miles along the coast. 



The live oak is commonly 40 or 50 feet in height, and from 

 one to two feet in diameter ; but it is sometimes much larger. 

 Like most other trees, it has, when insulated, a wide and tufted 

 summit. Its trunk is sometimes undivided for 18 or 20 feet, 

 but often ramifies at half this height, and at a distance it has the 

 appearance of an old apple tree or pear tree. The leaves are 

 oval, coriaceous, of a dark green above and whitish beneath : 

 they persist during several years, and are partially renewed every 

 spring. On trees reared upon plantations, or growing in cool 

 soils, they are one half larger, and are often denticulated : upon 

 stocks of two or three years they are commonly very distinctly 



