CHAP. CV. CORYLA‘CER. QUE’RCUS. 1725 
by Ceesar ( Bell. Gall., vi.) as requiring sixty days to traverse it; and the re- 
mains of it are supposed by some to constitute the forest on the mountains of 
the Hartz; and by others, to be the Black Forest of the Tyrol. 
The beautiful fiction of the Hamadryads is frequently referred to by the 
Greek poets. The Hamadryads were nymphs, each of whom was 
* Doom'd to a life coeval with her oak.” PINDAR. 
Callimachus, in the Hymn to Delos (y. 80.), represents Melie as “ sighing 
deeply for her parent oak ;”’ and adds, — 
*€ Joy fills her breast when showers refresh the spray : 
Sadly she grieves when autumn’s leaves decay.” 
In Apollonius Rhodius, book ii., we find one of the Hamadryads imploring a 
woodman to spare the oak to which her existence was attached : — 
** Loud through the air resounds the woodman’s stroke, 
When, lo! a voice breaks from the groaning oak. 
* Spare, spare my life! a trembling virgin spare ! 
Oh, listen to the Hamadryad’s prayer! 
No longer let that fearful axe resound ; 
Preserve the tree to which my life is bound ! 
See, from the bark my blood in torrents flows, 
I faint, I sink, I perish from your blows.’ ” 
Among the Celtic nations, the god Teut was worshipped under the form 
of an oak, or, according to others, Tarnawa, the god of thunder ; but these 
legends, together with the superstitions of the druids, belong rather to the 
British oak, than to the genus generally. 
Properties and Uses. The wood of most of the species of oaks is, compara- 
tively with that of other trees, hard, compact, heavy, tough, and durable; and, in 
most, the entire plant, and more especially the bark, leaves, and fruit, abound 
in astringent matter, and in tannin. The wood of the larger-growing Eu- 
ropean kinds, and more especially of the group obur, is considered superior 
to all other European or American woods for ship-building. The wood of Q. 
alba, and that of Q. virens, are most esteemed for the same object in America. 
The wood of the group Cérris is also employed in ship-building in Turkey and 
Greece; more especially, as Olivier informs us, at Constantinople. The wood 
of the group J‘lex is very heavy, hard, compact, and durable, and fit for 
various uses in mechanics and joinery. In America, the wood of Q. obtus{loba, 
the post oak, is considered as one of the best kinds for most purposes of 
construction. The wood of Q. ribra and Q. coccinea has a reddish tinge, but is 
coarse-grained, porous, and not durable. In general, the evergreen oaks have 
wood of the finest grain; and the deciduous kinds of the group Rubre that 
of the coarsest grain. There is no purpose in the arts to which the wood 
of most of the species of oak is not applicable, when it can be obtained 
of sufficient dimensions ; and the durability of the wood of the group Robur 
is thought to exceed that of the wood of every other tree used in ship-build- 
ing, the teak alone excepted. Throughout Europe, and more especially in 
Britain, oak timber was used for every purpose, both of naval and civil 
architecture, till the wood of the pine and fir tribe came to be generally 
imported from the Baltic and North America, about the beginning of the 
last century. Since that period, the use of oak timber has given way to that 
of pine and fir in house-building ; but it still maintains its superiority in the 
construction of ships, and various kinds of machines; and even in house- 
building, where great durability is required. Oak wood is also still employed 
in joinery and cabinet-making. 
The bark of all the species of oak abounds in tannin and gallic acid, and is, 
or may be, used in tanning; but, in Europe, more especially that of the sec- 
tion Robur, and, in America, the bark of Q. falcata, Q. ribra, Q. tinctoria, 
and Q. Prinus montfcola, are most esteemed for this purpose. The bark of 
Q. tinctoria also furnishes a yellow dye, much used in dyeing wool and silk, 
and considered preferable to that of the woad. Medicinally, the bark of some 
of the species affords a substance which may be used instead of quinine. 
