42 INADVERTENT USE OF SPURIOUS OAK 



Zoology, will also furnish evidence of the utility of the Physi- 

 cal Sciences in the conduct of the ordinary affairs of life. 



Nothing is of more vital importance to us, as Britons, than 

 the welfare of our Naval force ; in this every one is interested, 

 and many, as growers of the timber employed in its construc- 

 tion, builders of the ships, manufacturers of the articles used 

 in their equipment, or officers entrusted with their command, 

 are deeply and immediately concerned in it. Some facts have 

 recently come to light, pointing out the true cause of the evils 

 apparently arising from a deterioration in the quality of the 

 timber of which the ships in the Royal Navy have of late been 

 constructed, the occurrence of which a little Botanical know- 

 ledge would have precluded. There are in England two dis- 

 tinct species of Oak, the Quercus Robur of Linnaeus and of Bo- 

 tanists in general, and the Quercus sessiliflora. The former of 

 these trees, which is the true British Oak, affords a close- 

 grained, firm, solid timber, rarely subject to rot ; the other a 

 more loose and sappy timber, very liable to rot, and not half 

 so durable. The latter species is supposed to have been in- 

 troduced, some two or three ages ago, from the continent, 

 where the oaks chiefly belong to it, especially in the German 

 forests, the timber of which is known to be worthless. 



The fact of the existence in our plantations of these two 

 species of Oak, differing so considerably in value, has long 

 been known to Botanists. It was noticed so early as the time of 

 Ray above a century ago, and Martyn, in his Flora Rustica, 

 as well as the late President of the Linnaean Society, Sir James 

 E. Smith, in his Flora Britannica, have added their testimo- 

 nies to the fact. Our planters and purveyors of timber, how- 

 ever, appear to have had no suspicion of it ; for " the impos- 



and the entire geological history of the formation, as well as that of the 

 surrounding country evinces the non-existence of coal in the vicinity. 



How far the same rule may be practically applicable to the continent 

 of Europe, remains to be ascertained. In consequence of the paucity of 

 deposits of true coal, beds of lignite, &c., which, in Great Britain, would 

 be merely of very limited local interest, are, in many countries, objects of 

 commercial importance. In some places, also, true coal occurs, sometimes 

 in beds of great thickness, in certain formations, (on account, as it would 

 appear from the researches of Messrs. Murchison, Sedgwick, and Lyell, of 

 the prodigious scale on which they are developed,) the equivalents of which, 

 in the British Islands, contain merely some insignificant layers of lignite. 

 See Proceedings of Geol. Soc. ; or Phil. Mag. & Annals, N. S. vol. vi. 

 p. 137, and vol. vii. p. 50, and 359 ; &c. 



All the lignites, it may be added, assume, when pulverized, a red or brown 

 ferruginous tinge, while true coal works into a black powder ; and, when 

 burnt, the former exhale, in a greater or less degree, a vegetable odour, 

 which is not emitted by the latter in combustion, being peculiar to the im- 

 perfectly biiuminized substances. . 



