of the United States of North Amer tea, Ht 



never reaches this country as an article of commerce ; the 

 whole produce being consumed by the Americans themselves 

 in ship-building. Its specific gravity is equal to, and in some 

 cases greater than, that of water, and it is used along with 

 white oak and cedar for the principal timbers of vessels. The 

 climate, according to an American authority,* becomes mild 

 enough for its growth near Norfolk in Virginia, though at that 

 place it is less multiplied and less vigorous than in more 

 southerly latitudes. From Norfolk it spreads along the coast 

 for a distance of 1500 or 1800 miles, extending beyond the 

 mouths 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, most fully developed, and of 

 the best quality, about the bays and creeks and on the nu- 

 merous fertile islands which lie scattered for several hundred 

 miles along the coast. The live oak is generally forty or fifty 

 feet in height, and from one to two feet in diameter, but it is 

 sometimes much larger, and its trunk is often undivided for 

 eighteen or twenty feet. There can be little doubt, from its 

 great density and durability, that this is one of the finest 

 species of oak that exists, surpassing even that for which 

 Great Britain is so famous. Its cultivation has been tried in 

 this country without success ; but could it be imported, it would 

 be found admirably suited for the construction of lock-gates 

 and other engineeringworks, for which hard and durable timber 

 is required, and for which English or African oak is gener- 

 ally used. 



The White Oak (Quercus alba) is the species of which so 

 much is imported into this country. It is known by the name 

 of " American oak," but it is a very difi'erent and much in- 

 ferior wood to the live oak of the United States which I have 

 just described. It is also much more widely distributed, and 

 occurs in much greater quantity, than the live oak. It is 

 very common throughout the northern states and in Canada, 

 from whence it is exported to this country. It attains an 

 elevation of seventy or eighty feet, with a diameter of six or 

 seven feet. It is known by the whiteness of its bark, from 



* The Sylva Americana, by J. D. Browne. Bostan, 1833, 



