CUPULIFER^:. 



207 



sheltered by means of Scotch fir, or other hardy 

 quick-growing trees. On the judicious thinning and 

 clearing of a young wood, as well as protecting it 

 from the severity of the climate, depends much of a 

 planter's success and profit. The oak might be culti- 

 vated very profitably on many waste lands situated 

 near rivers or navigable canals. When the acorns 

 are sown in a field, and the trees allowed to grow 

 naturally, we secure the best timber for the use of the 

 carpenter and ship-builder, and in a much shorter 

 time than if the plants are first raised in a nursery, 

 and then transplanted. 



The oak attains a great age, and is said not to 

 reach maturity till it is one hundred years old. Some 

 of the aboriginal oaks of this country have been 

 known to exist for a thousand years. The oak 

 against which the arrow of Walter Tyrrel glanced, 

 before it killed William Rufus, was in existence less 

 than a century ago ; and there is still seen at Torwood, 

 in Stirlingshire, the oak under which the famous 

 Wallace convened his followers. 



The oak sumeumcs ^-quires the height of 100 feet, 

 more especially when planted in woods. Its trunk 

 also attains a great degree of thickness. The trunk 

 of an oak growing in 1764 iu Broomfield wood, 

 Shropshire, was sixty-eight feet in circumference and 

 twenty-three feet in length. The tree was estimated 

 to contain 1455 feet of thick timber. The circum- 

 ference of the green dale oak, near Welbeck, at 

 eleven feet from the ground, was thirty-eight feet, 

 and one growing near Wetherly, in Yorkshire, mea- 

 sured seventy-eight feet close to the ground. Dr. 

 Thomson mentions that an oak was felled at Whitby 

 Park, Shropshire, in 1697, which was nine feet in 

 diameter without the bark ; its branches spread 144 

 feet, and twenty-eight tons of timber were contained 

 in the body of the tree. Dr. Plott mentions an oak, 

 at Norbury, which was forty-five feet in circumference, 

 and when it was felled and lying on the ground, a 

 horseman on one side of the trunk was completely 

 concealed from one on the other side. 



While the tree thus attains a hreat height and 

 thickness, it also sends its roots deeply into the 

 ground, and is thus enabled to resist the shocks of 

 tempests and the war of elements. 



As o'er the aerial Alps, sublimely spread 



Some aged oak uprears his reverend head, 



This way and that the furious tempests blow, 



To lay the monarch of the mountain low ; 



Th' imperial plant, though nodding: at the sound, 



Though all his scattered honours strew the ground, 



Safe in his strength, and seated on the rock, 



In naked majesty defies the shock ; 



High as the head shoots towering to the skies, 



So deep the root in earth's foundation lies. 



The oak is a very valuable forest tree, and is much 

 cultivated on account of the timber and bark which it 

 furnishes. Houses and ships, cities and navies, are 

 formed of it. To it we are indebted not only for our 

 maritime glory and commercial prosperity, but also 

 for many of the ordinary comforts of life. 



From a small acorn see the oak arise, 

 Supremely tall and towering to the skies ! 

 Queen of the groves, her stately head she rears, 

 Her bulk increasing with increasing years! 

 Now moves in pomp majestic o'er the deep, 

 While in her womb Britannia's thunders sleep ; 

 With fame and conquest graces Albion's shore, 

 And guards the island where she grew before. 



The oak was held sacred by the Greeks and 

 Romans as well as the ancient Britons. By the 



Romans it was dedicated to Jupiter, and in former 

 times Druidical ceremonies were frequently performed 

 under its shade. The fruit of the oak was used in 

 the early ages of the world as an article of food, and 

 the failure of the acorn crop was considered as a 

 cause of famine. Now-a-days acorns are given as 

 food to hogs, squirrels, and the larger gallinaceous 

 birds, and are said to have a great effect in fattening 

 them. The root of the oak is beautifully grained, 

 and is employed for many useful and ornamental 

 purposes. All the parts of the oak are astringent, 

 but the bark possesses this property in a remarkable 

 degree, and is on this account used officinally. Oak 

 bark is covered with a bluish-grey epidermis, and 

 within is of a red colour. It is peeled in spring, when 

 it is more astringent than in the later part of the 

 season. Its astringency is owing to the presence of 

 gallic acid and tannin, which exist in great quantity 

 in the inner part of the bark. As a powerful astrin- 

 gent, it is given internally in powder, in doses of from 

 two to six drachms. It may be used as a substitute for 

 cinchona bark in the cure of ague, and has been ad- 

 ministered to stop internal haemorrhages and bleed- 

 ing from the nose and mouth. The decoction of the 

 bark is used as a gargle in relaxed sore throats, and 

 as a lotion to indolent ulcers. An extract of the bark 

 is also prepared tor medicinal use. 



The use of the bark in tanning leather is familiar 

 to all, and its employment in the construction of hot- 

 beds is also well known. The saw-dust of the oak is 

 used in dyeing all the varieties of drab and the differ- 

 ent shades of brown. An infusion of the bark with a 

 small quantity of sulphate of iron is employed by com- 

 mon people to dye woollen stuffs of a purplish colour. 

 Acorns and their cups when roasted are adminis- 

 tered either in the form of powder or infusion in cases 

 of bowel complaint and passive haemorrhages. 



The only other British species of the genus is 

 Quercus sessiliflora. The specific name is apt to mis- 

 lead, inasmuch as the flowers in both species are ses- 

 sile. In the common oak, however, the catkin is on 

 a long footstalk, while in the present species it is 

 nearly sessile. The timber of this species is generally 

 considered inferior to that of the Quercus robur. 



Quercus suber, the cork tree, is a tree about forty 

 feet high, which grows in the south of France, in 

 Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the north of Africa, be- 

 tween the thirty-fifth and forty-fourth degrees of lati- 

 tude. Its leaves continue green till the middle of 

 May, when they generally fall just before the new 

 leaves appear. It yields oval acorns like those of 

 the common oak, which are eaten by hogs with 

 avidity. Its timber is heavy, hard, and compact, but 

 not very durable. The tree is chiefly valuable on 

 account of its bark, the external layer of which fur- 

 nishes the light, elastic, and impermeable substance 

 called Cork, which is applied to so many important 

 uses. The bark is taken off every eight or ten years, 

 and the trees will often live for 150 years, even 

 though the process of removing their bark is repeated 

 regularly. When young, the tree does not yield 

 good cork, and the two first peelings are in general 

 not fit for use. It is only when the trees are about 

 forty years old that the bark becomes valuable. The 

 stripping of the bark takes place in the months of 

 July and August. Two incisions are made parallel 

 to each other along the whole length of the tree, and 

 then two others are made transversely at the extre- 

 mities. The outer bark is then removed, care being 



