CHAP. CV, C()RYLA^CEA\ 6JUE'rCUS. 1867 



between the Alleghany Mountains and the Ohio, in a yellow soil, composed 

 of clay with a mixture of calcareous stones, which produces excellent wheat. 

 History. The white oak, according to the elder Michaux {Hist, des C/ienes), 

 was the first American oak known in Europe ; and it is not only mentioned, 

 but a figure of a single leaf of it is given, in Parkinson's Herbal, printed in 

 1640. Parkinson having just described Q. £'sculus, adds," They have in 

 Virginia, a goodly tall oke, which they calle the white oke, because the barke 

 is whiter then others ; whose leafe, because it so neerely resembleth this 

 sweet oke, I have joyned with it. The ackorne, likewise, is not only sweeter 

 then others, but, by boyling it long, it giveth out an oyle, with which they 

 keep supple their joynts." (p. 1387.) The leaf figured bears a very close re- 

 semblance to those of the Q. alba given by the two Michaux. Catesby, writ- 

 ing, probably, about 1728, says that the Q. alba virginiiina of Parkinson closely 

 resembles the common British oak. He adds that the bark is white, and that 

 the grain of the wood is very fine; also, that there is a variety of it called the scaly 

 white oak, which is found in Virginia. (Catesb. Carol., i. p. 21.) Kalm, in his 

 Travels, about the year 1740, says that the white oak is the kind of tree 

 which is found in greatest abundance in good ground near Philadelphia. It 

 is stated in the Hortus Kewensis to have been introduced in 1724; and it is 

 not only included in the list published by the Society of Gardeners, in 17.30 

 (see p. 77.), but is one of the oaks enumerated by Catesby, as being " then 

 growing at Mr. Fairchild's." {Catesb. Carol., p. 22.) The tree has never been 

 much planted in Britain, from the difficulty of bringing over the acorns. 

 About the year 1820, when Cobbett returned from America, and commenced 

 nurseryman, he strongly recommended the tree, and raised and sold several 

 thousand plants of it, though he acknowledged that he had great difficulty in 

 bringing the acorns in a sound state to England. 



Properties and Uses. Pursh calls the white oak one of the most abundant 

 and useful of its genus in America. The elder Michaux states that it is pre- 

 ferred to all other oaks, both for house and ship building, in that country ; and 

 Michaux the younger informs us that, in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and nearly 

 all the towns in the middle states, the framework of all the well-built houses, 

 whether of wood or brick, is of the timber of this tree. It is seldom, however, 

 he adds, used for the floors or outer covering of wooden houses, from its lia- 

 bility to warp and split. The wood of young trees is very elastic, and capable 

 of such minute division, that it is used for many of the purposes of the willow 

 or the bamboo, or even whalebone; such as basket-making, carpet-brooms, 

 seats and backs for chairs, the rims of sieves, the bottoms of riddles, and 

 carter's whips, which are made in the following manner : — " A tapering piece 

 of the wood is cleft in nine, from the small end to within 1 ft. of the other end, 

 which is left solid for the hand. These nine spleets are then twisted by threes, 

 and the threes again twisted together; the whole is then sewed in a case of black 

 leather, and a silken thong added, which completes the whip." (Birkbeck's 

 Notes, &c., p. 7 1 .) The wood is also used, in America,for milk-pails, the handles 

 of axes, and numerous other rural purposes. " Of all the species," says the 

 younger Michaux, " that grow east of the Mississippi, the white oak alone 

 furnishes staves for casks, proper for containing wines and spirituous liquors. 

 The domestic consumption for this purpose is immense ; and vast quantities are 

 exported to the West Indies, Great Britain, and the Islands of Madeira and 

 TenerifFe." (X. Amer. Syl., i. p. 22.) The bark is employed for tanning the 

 leather for saddles, and other articles which require to be of a fine texture ; 

 but the bark of the white oak is so much thinner than that of the red, that it 

 is rarely usetl for the purposes of ordinary tanning. The acorns are sweet, 

 and are eaten by the Indians. 



Propagation and Culture. (See p. 1727.) We may here repeat, as applicable 

 to all the oaks of this and the succeeding sections, that the acorns may be 

 brought over with perfect safety, if bedded in moist live moss (iS'phagnum). 

 They will require no attention during the voyage ; but, as they will have ger- 

 riiinated by the time of their arrival in Britain, they should be immediately 

 planted, with or without pinching of!" the extremities of such of the radicles ns 



