a 
a4 ORD. Il. Ameéntacer. QUERCUS ROBUR. 
strong branches, and is covered with rough brown bark: ‘the leaves 
are oblong, broader towards the end, deeply.cut or sinuated at the 
edges, forming obtuse lobes, and stand upon short, footstalks: the 
flowers are very small, and are male and female upon the same tree: 
the calyx of the male flowers i is divided into five, Six, or seven, seg- 
ments, which are pointed, and often cloven: there is no corolla; 
the filaments are from five to ten, and supplied with large double 
anthere : the calyx of the female flower is membranous, hemi- 
spherical, and composed of numerous imbricated pointed segments: 
there is no corolla: the germen is oval: the styles from two to five, 
and furnished with simple permanent stigmata:. its fruit is a-nut, 
which is oblong, fixed to a short cup, and ripens in October, but 
the flowers appear in April. 
This valuable tree is well known to be a native of Britain, where 
it has in some instances acquired an extraordinary magnitude: its 
wood is of general use in carpentry, and by uniting hardness with 
such a degree of toughness as not easily to splinter, has been long 
justly preferred { a8 pe Barponc of building ships.” 
ancients, by whom different parts of + ised ;-but it is the 
bark which is now directed for medial use by our pharmacopezias. 
To this tree we may also refer the Gallz, or Galls, which are pro- 
duced from its leaves by means of a certain insect. 
_ Oak bark manifests to the taste a strong astringency, accompanied 
with a moderate bitterness, qualities which are extracted both by 
water and by rectified spirit. Its universal use and preference in the 
tanning of leather is a proof of its great astringency, and like other 
astringents it has been recommended in agues, and for restraining 
hemorrhagies, alvine fluxes, and other immoderate evacuations. A 
* Oak saw-dust is the principal indigenous vegetable used i in dying fustain. All 
the ¢ varieties of drabs, and different shades of brown, are made with oak saw-dust, — 
variously managed and compounded. Oak apples are likewise used in dying, asa 
substitute for galls. _ An infusion of the bark, with a small quantity of copperas, 
is used by the common people to dye woollen of a purplish blue, which is sufliciv 
ently durable... Withering, . c. 
the Oak were sufficiently Eaawit to the 
(egg, 
