AMERICAN OAKS 33 



The wood is chiefly used for articles of husbandry and fencing. 

 The Canadian cottages, commonly called log houses, are mostly built 

 of it. In the navy yards of New York and Philadelphia it is much 

 employed. I am informed by James Taylor of Lloyd's, who at present 

 is engaged in superintending the building of vessels on an improved 

 principle at Montreal and at St. John's, New Brunswick, that he finds 

 abundantly in the neighbourhood of the last-mentioned place a sort of 

 oak which proves to be much more durable than the common white oak 

 to which it bears a slight resemblance. Mr. Taylor expects that it will 

 become an article of great interest in shipbuilding. This specimen 

 agrees perfectly with my Quercus olivaeformis. Valuable as is this 

 species of oak to the Americans, Michaux does not agree with those 

 writers who recommend its introduction into Europe, and its being 

 employed in preference to European oak. He inclines to the opinion that 

 our oaks are of a much superior quality, and rather advises that they 

 should be naturalised on the American continent. In autumn the foliage 

 changes, Michaux tells us, to a bright violet colour, which gives this tree 

 a singular appearance, and renders it, from that point of view alone, a 

 desirable acquisition to our woods and shrubberies. / 



Q. alba (3 repanda. Foliis levissime lobatis utrinque viridibus. Michx. 

 Hist. Chenes Am. n. 4, t. 5, f. 2 ; Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 2, p. 633. 



Found also, according to Pursh, in Pennsylvania and Carolina. 



2. QUERCUS OLIVAEFORMIS. Mossy-cup Oak. 



Q. olivaeformis. Foliis oblongis profunde inaequaliter sinuato-pinnatifidis , 

 subtus glaucis subpubescentibus, fructu elliptico, cupula craterata squamosa 

 margine fimbriata. 



Q. olivaeformis, Michx. N. Am. Sylv. v. 1, p. 33, t. 3 ; Pursh, Fl. Am. 

 Sept. v. 2, p. 632. 



Q. olivaeformis, Michx. f. Hist. Arb. Am. 2, p. 32, t. 2 ; Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 2, 

 p. 632 ; Nutt. Gen. 2, p. 215 ; Sm. in Rees' Encyc. 29, part 1st, n. 81. 



Abundant at Palatine, forty miles west from Albany, State of New 

 York, Amherstburg, and Sandwich, Upper Canada. Grows to a large tree 

 from 50 to 70 feet high and proportionably thick. Branches small, 

 drooping ; leaves long and deeply lobed ; acorns invariably in clusters at the 

 point of the shoots. Michaux's figure of this species is by no means 

 good, and I am much inclined to think it has been taken from an imperfect 

 specimen. The acorn is much larger, the cup more fringed, but the seed 

 is not so much enveloped in it. It is known in Canada and New York 

 by the name of white oak. The wood resembles that of Q. alba in colour, 

 but it is of a closer texture. 



Michaux gives the banks of the Hudson river and the western parts of 

 New York as its stations. Pursh found it in Pennsylvania and Virginia, 

 on iron-ore hills. 1 



1 The following is in Douglas's handwriting (Ed.) : 



EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM MR. FLOY. 



' Quercus elongata (olivaeformis of Michaux, the younger). I very much doubt if 

 either Michaux or Pursh has seen this oak. I have never seen but one tree of it (and 

 it was the most beautiful of oaks I ever saw) ; from this tree I obtained a few acorns 

 and specimens in 1806. I gave Michaux the specimen from which his figure was 



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