13 io The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



A good illustration of the trunk and peculiar bark of this tree, taken from the 

 Washington oak at Fishkill on the Hudson river, is given by Sargent, 1 who says 

 that it may be eight or ten centuries old, and was 7 ft. in diameter in 1888. 



This was one of the first American oaks introduced. Mentioned by Ray 2 in 

 1688, it was first figured and described by Plukenet 8 three years later, and is 

 included 4 amongst the trees for sale in the Catalogue of the Society of Gardeners, 

 published in 1730. 



In Loudon's time it was a rare tree, as he only notices plants in Loddiges' 

 nursery and in the Chiswick Garden. It apparently has not been successful in our 

 climate, as the only specimens 8 which we have seen are small trees at Kew and at 

 Westonbirt. 



According to Foster and Ashe, 6 this species is becoming more valuable as a 

 timber tree than formerly, as the wood is now used as a substitute for white oak. 

 The best qualities are mixed with white oak and sold under that name. The wood 

 is heavy, strong, tough, close-grained, and durable in contact with the soil, but is 

 inclined to check in drying. It is dark brown in colour, with paler sapwood. 

 Slightly softer than white oak, it does not take so high a polish. The medullary 

 rays are not so broad as in the white oak, and when quarter-sawn the silver grain is 

 not so pleasing. In western Virginia half the railway sleepers are now made of 

 chestnut oak, where white oak was once the only wood accepted. In the northern 

 factories it is now being put to uses for which only a few years ago white oak was 

 considered essential, as for furniture, farm implements, tool handles, oil barrels, 

 interior finish, and wagons. The inferior kinds are often marked with black specks, 

 due to the burrowing of a minute larva. 



Until about 1900 the great bulk of the chestnut oak was cut for the bark alone, 

 the timber being abandoned in the forest. The bark is richer in tannin than any 

 other of the eastern American oaks, and is still much used in local tanneries, and 

 is also made into tannic acid for export. (A. H.) 



QUERCUS MUEHLENBERGII, Yellow Oak 



Quercus Muehlenbergii, Engelmann, in Trans. St. Louis Acad. iii. 391 (1878) ; Sargent, in Bot. Gaz. 



xliv. 226 (1907). 

 Quercus Prinus acuminata, Michaux, Hist. Chenes Am. No. 5, t. 8 (1801); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. 



Brit. iii. 1875 (1838). 

 Quercus acuminata, Sargent, in Garden and Forest, viii. 93 (1895), Silva N. Amer. viii. 55, t. 377, 



(1895), and Trees N. Amer. 273 (1905). 

 Quercus Castanea, Willdenow, Neue Schrift. Gesell. Natfr. Berlin, iii. 396 (1801) (not Ne). 



A tree, occasionally attaining in America 160 ft. in height and 12 ft. in girth 

 above the broad and often buttressed base. It is mainly distinguished from 



1 In Garden and Forest, i. 511, fig. 8 1 (1888). 3 Historia Plantarum, ii. 1 801 (1688). 



s Phytographia, t. 54, f. 3 (1691). * Cf. Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 68 (1838). 



6 The tree figured under this name in Gard. Chron. xiv. 617, fig. 101 (1893), is Q. Mirbeckii. 

 U.S. Forest Service Circular No. 135 (1908). 





