Penfylvama, Philadelphia^. 15^ 



ncfs of any in North America, and which vies in 

 that point with our greateft European trees. The 

 white oak and the fir in North America, how- 

 ever, are little inferior to it. It cannot therefore 

 but be very agreeable to fee in fpring, at the end 

 of May (when it is in bloffom) one of the great- 

 eft trees covered for a fortnight together with 

 flowers, .which, with regard to their fhape, fize, 

 and partjy colour, are like tulips ; the leaves have 

 likewife fomething peculiar ; the Engli/h, there- 

 fore, in fome places, call the tree the old woman s 

 fmock, becaufe their imagination finds fomething - 

 like it below the leaves. 



ITS wood is here made ufe of for canoes, 

 boards, planks, bowls, dimes, fpoons, door 

 pofts, and all forts of joiners work. I have feen 

 a barn -of a confiderable fize, whofe walls and" 

 roof were made of a fingle tree of this kind, fplit 

 into boards. Some joiners reckoned this wood 

 better than oak, becaufe this latter frequently is 

 warped, which the other never does, but works 

 very eafy; others again valued it very little. It 

 is certain, that it contracts fo much in hot wea- 

 ther, as to occafion great cracks in the boards, 

 and in wet weather it fwells fo as to be near burft- 

 ing and the people hardly know of a wood in 

 thefe parts which varies fo much in contracting 

 and expanding itfelf. The joiners, however, 

 make much ufe of it in their work; they fay 

 there are two fpecies of it ; but they are merely 

 two varieties, one of which, in time, turns yel- 

 low within ; the other is white ; the former is 

 laid to have a loofer texture. The bark (like 

 RuJJia glafs) is diviiible into very thin leaves, 



which 



