CUPULIFERiE. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



101 



half an inch wide. On one form ^ growing from one to two feet high and spreading hy underground 

 stemsj which is common in the sterile Pine barrens of the south Atlantic and eastern Gulf coasts^ the 

 lower leaves are ohlong-obovate^ gradually narrowed at the base, acute at the broad apex, coarsely 



repand-serrate with large triangular spreading or obhque teeth, or three-toothed at the 

 entire below, and three or four inches long, while the 



apex 



and 



slio^htly re volute mars'ins. 



t) 



& 



upper leaves are oblong-lanceolate with entire 

 On these dwarf forms the fruit is usually larger and borne on shorter 

 peduncles than that of large trees. 



Qiiercus Virginiana is one of the most valuable timber-trees of North America. The wood is 

 very heavy, hard, strong, tough, and close-grained, with a satiny surface susceptible of receiving a 

 beautiful polish, but is rather difficult to work ; it is light brown or yellow, with thin nearly white 

 sapwood, and contains numerous small open ducts arranged in short broken rows parallel to the broad 

 conspicuous medullary rays, the layers of annual growth being hardly distinguishable. The specific 

 gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.9501, a cubic foot weighing 59.21 pounds. Formerly it was 

 largely used in ship-building, and is still occasionally employed for this purpose.^ 



The sweet acorns were gathered and eaten by the Indians, and afford valuable food for hogs.^ 

 The importance of the Live Oak as a timber-tree was recognized in the seventeenth century,^ and 

 the first description of it was published by Plukenet in 1696.^ It was cultivated by Phihp Miller in 



Quercus Virginiana^ var. minima (Plate cccxcvi,). 



ern Florida, including the island of Santa Rosa, were withdrawn 



Quercus virens, var. dentata. Chapman, FL 421 (not Quercus from entry on October 23, 1830 ; two years later the reservations 



dentata, Thunberg) (1860). 



were increased by 26,218 acres on tbe coast of Mississippi, includ- 



2 The President of the United States having been authorized by ing Round Island, and by two hundred and forty acres in soutb- 

 an Act of Congress approved March 27, 1794, to procure four ships ern Alabama; on October 21, 1845, 9,170 acres in three islands 

 of war for the purpose of protecting American commerce against on the coast of Louisiana were added to the reservations. 



the attacks of Algerian pirates, the attention of the government 



Previous to the War of Secession large quantities of Live Oak 



was called to the value of Live Oak timber in ship-building (see timber were cut from the reservations and used in the construction 

 Am, State Papers [Docs. Legislative and Executive], i. 8). Writing of war-ships or stored in the shops of the different navy-yards, but 

 on the 11th of January, 1797, to the committee on naval questions, the substitution of iron for wood in naval architecture diminished 

 James McHenry, Secretary of War, argued that " early precaution their value, and they were gradually neglected and occupied by 

 should be taken to secure to the United States a lasting fund of squatters who cleared the land for agricultural purposes. On 

 live oak for future use " (ibid. 27) ; and by an Act of Congress March 3, 1879, an act was passed providing that all lands in Florida 

 approved February 25, 1799, $200,000 were appropriated by Con- reserved for the use of the navy should be restored to the public 

 gress for the purpose of purchasing growing or other timber or domain ; no action was taken under this authority, however, but 

 lands on which timber was growing suitable for the navy. Under under an act passed by the Fifty-third Congress, approved in Febru- 

 this act, Grover Island, of three hundred and fifty acres, on the ary, 1895, all the naval timber reservations in Louisiana, Missis- 

 Georgia coast, was purchased by the President for $7,500 in sippi, and Alabama were transferred by the Secretary of the Navy 

 December, 1799 ; and in the following year Blackboard Island, of to the Secretary of the Interior on the 15th of March, 1895, and 

 sixteen hundred acres, also on the Georgia coast, was bought for opened to the public for entry and occupation, the Florida reser- 

 $15,000. The acquisition of Louisiana by the United States in- vations being still retained by the Navy Department for further 

 creased the available supply of live oak, and on the 1st of March, 

 1817, an act was passed authorizing the withdrawal from entry of » « It bears a prodigious quantity of fruit ; the acorn is small, 

 lands in the new territory covered with Live Oak and Cedar suita- but sweet and agreeable to the taste when roasted, and is food for 

 ble for naval construction which might be designated by the Presi- almost all animals. The Indians obtain from it a sweet oil, which 

 dent. Under this act Cypress and Six Islands in Louisiana, of about they use in the cooking of hommony, rice, &c., and they also roast 

 nineteen thousand acres in extent and estimated to contain thirty- them in hot embers, eating them as we do chesnuts." (W. Bartram, 



investigations. 



seven thousand Live Oaks suitable for naval use, were reserved. 

 The ceding of Florida to the United States called attention to the 



Travels, 85.) 



building 



value of its Live Oak trees and to the great quantities of this tun- those and many more which we have not nam'd ; they have all 



xported ann 



such as we in England esteem Good, Lasting and Serviceable, as 



eign countries. The land was so covered by private titles, however, the Oak of three sorts, the White, Black and Live Oak, which for 

 that no timber-land could be reserved in the new territory imtil 



Touo-hness and the Goodness of its Grain is much esteemed." 



1825, when Congress appropriated 810,000 to purchase land on (Thomas Ash, Carolina, or a Description of the Present State of that 



Santa Rosa Sound and cultivate Live Oak timber. The cultivation 

 appears to have consisted chiefly in clearing the ground about young 



Country, 10.) 



^ Quercus Virginiana sempervirens, foliis oblongis sinuatis, Sr nan 



trees to improve their growth. Attempts to transplant seedlings sinuatis, Aim, Bot, 310. — Ray, Hist. PL iii. Dendr. 8. 



were not successful, but large quantities of nuts were planted and 

 experiments in pruning young trees were made. 



Under the Act of 1817, 208,224 acres of Live Oak land in west- 



Quercus sempervirens, foliis oblongis non sinuati.^, Catesby, Nat. 

 Hist. Car. i, 17, t, 17. 



