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THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



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in timber, and woodmen, distinguish by their use, qualities, 

 and accidents, and to which they give different names; but 

 these being merely local, and not founded on permanent cha- 

 racters, it is difficult to ascertain them. The wood of the 

 Oak, when of a good sort, is well known to be hard, tough, 

 tolerably flexile, and not easily splintering, strong without 

 being too heavy, and not easily admitting water; for these 

 qualities it is preferred in ship-building, and is also adapted 

 to almost every purpose of the carpenter; it would be diffi- 

 cult to enumerate all the uses to which it may be applied. 

 There is a kind, says Evelyn, so tough and compact, that our 

 sharpest tools will not enter it; and though some trees be 

 harder, yet we find them more fragile, and not so well quali- 

 fied to support great weights; nor is there any kind of timber 

 more lasting. That which is twined, and a little wreathed, 

 is forced to support burdens far posts, columns, &c. for all 

 which our English Oak is greatly preferable to the French : 

 and it is found that the rough-grarned body of a stubbed Oak, 

 is fittest for the case of a cider mill, and such like engines, 

 as best enduring the action of a ponderous rolling stone. 

 For shingles, pales, laths, coopers' ware, clapboard for wain- 

 scot, Oak is excellent, and was much esteemed in former times 

 for wheel-spokes, pins, and pegs for tiling. The knottiest is 

 most proper for water-works, piles, &c. because it will drive 

 best, and last longest: and the crooked makes excellent knee- 

 timber in shipping, and for mill-wheels. The particular and 

 most valued qualities of the Oak, says Mr. Gilpin, are hard- 

 ness and toughness. Box and Ebony are harder, Yew and 

 Ash are tougher, than Oak; but no timber is possest of both 

 these requisites together, in so great a degree, as the British 

 Oak. Almost all arts and manufactures are indebted to it, 

 but in ship-building its elasticity and strength are applied to 

 most advantage. It is not the erect and stately tree that is 

 the most useful in ship-building, but more often the crooked 

 one, forming short turns and elbows, commonly called knee- 

 timber. Nor is it the straight tall stem, with the fibres run- 

 ning in parallel lines, that is the most useful in bearing bur- 

 dens, but what Shakspeare terms " the unwedgeable and 

 gnarled Oak." It is one of the most picturesque trees that 

 animates our landscapes. It adds new dignity to the ruined 

 tower, and throws its broad arms with equal effect across the 

 purling brook or above the mantling pool. Coppice Oak 

 makes the best hoops. The smaller truncheons and spray, 

 make billet, bavine, and coals, poles, sedgels, and walking- 

 stafFs. Of the roots were formerly made hafts for daggers, 

 hangers, and knives, handles for officers' staves, boxes, and 

 mathematical instruments. Oak saw-dust is the principal 

 indigenous vegetable used in dying fustian: all the varieties 

 of drabs, and different shades of brown, are made with Oak 

 saw-dust, variously managed and compounded. Oak-apples 

 are also used in dyeing, as a substitute for galls ; the black 

 obtained from them, by the addition of copperas, is more 

 beautiful than that from the oriental galls, hut not so durable. 

 The galls upon the leaves, are occasioned by a small insect, 

 called Cynips Querdfolii, which deposits an egg in the sub- 

 stance of the leaf, by making a small perforation on the under 

 surface. As a medicine, they are to be considered as appli- 

 cable to the same purposes as Oak-bark, and, by possessing a 

 greater degree of astringent and styptic power, seem to have 

 an advantage over it, and to be better suited for external use. 

 Reduced into fine powder, and made into an ointment, they 

 have been found of great service in riBemorrhoidal affections. 

 The bark is universally used to tan leather ; and an infusion 

 of it, with a small quantity of copperas, is used by the com- 

 mon people to dye woollen of a purplish blue, and the colour, 

 though not very bright, is durable. The Scotch Highlanders 



use it to dye their yarn of a brown colour ; and a herdsman 

 there, would think himself and his flock unfortunate, if he 

 had not a staff of this wood. The saw-dust, and even the 

 leaves, may be used for tanning; but they are much inferior 

 to the bark, for that purpose. The leaves are very subject 

 to be covered with a sweet viscid juice, called honey-dew, 

 which bees and other insects are very fond of; the iarvse of 

 many insects feed upon the leaves : which, if they can be 

 obtained in great quantities, may be dried and used for litter. 

 By some persons the leaves are preferred to dung, for making 

 hot-beds for melons, and may probably be used with success 

 instead of the bark in tanning. Acorns were of considerable 

 importance formerly, when a great proportion of this island 

 was forest, for feeding swine. About the end of the seventh 

 century, king Ina, among the few laws which he unde, to 

 regulate the simple economy of our Saxon ancestors, gave 

 particular directions relating to the fattening of swine in 

 woods, since his time called pawnage or pannage. The 

 astringent effects of the Oak were well known to the ancients, 

 by whom different parts of the tree were used ; but it is the 

 bark which is now employed in medicine. To the taste, it 

 manifests a strong astringeney, accompanied with a moderate 

 bitterness, qualities which are extracted both by water and 

 spirit. Like other astringents, it has been recommended in 

 agues, and for restraining haemorrhages, alvine fluxes, and 

 ether immoderate evacuations. A decoction of it has like- 

 wise been advantageously employed as a gargle and fomenta- 

 tion. Dr. Cullen frequently employed the decoction with 

 success, in slight tumefactions of the mucous membrane ot' 

 the fauces, and other disorders arising from cold ; which, 

 when it was early applied, were often prevented. Dr. Cullen 

 almost constantly added a portion of alum to these decoctions, 

 but he did not find a solution of alum alone so effectual. 

 Some have supposed that tins bark is not less efficacious than, 

 that of the Cinchona, especially in the form of extract; but 

 this opinion now obtains few supporters, though there is no 

 doubt that Oak-bark will cure iiitcrmittents, both alone and 

 joined with Chamomile flowers. Propagation and Culture of 

 Ike Oak. All the sorts of Oak are propagated by sowing their 

 acorns, and the sooner they are put into the ground after they 

 are ripe, the better they will succeed; for they are very apt to 

 sprout, if spread thin; and if laid in heaps, will ferment and 

 rot in a little time: the best season therefore for sowing them 

 is in the beginning of November, by which time they will have 

 fallen fiom the trees. This early sowing seems to be the most 

 natural, but the destruction occasioned by field-mice has in- 

 duced many to prefer spring-sowing: and seedsmen who 

 adopt that plan preserve the vegetative power of their acorns 

 through the winter, by laying them thinly upon a boarded 

 floor, taking care that they are first fully ripe. Mr. Miller gives 

 the following directions for raising the several sorts of Oak in 

 a nursery, when they are intended to be planted out for orna- 

 ment only. The acorns should be sown in beds four feet 

 wide, with paths of two feet broad between them ; in these 

 beds there may be four rows sown, at about nine inches dis- 

 tance from each other, though some allow only four inches 

 between the rows. Draw straisjht drills with the hoe, into 

 which drop the acorns, two or three inches apart, covering 

 them carefully with the earth two inches thick. In the 

 spring, when the plants begin to appear, clear them carefully 

 from weeds ; and if the season prove dry, refresh them now 

 and then with a little water. Let them remain until the 

 following autumn ; at which time have a spot of ground, in 

 size proportioned to the quantity of plants, well trenched 

 and levelled; at the middle or end of October carefully take 

 up the plants, so as not to injure their roots, and plant them 



