AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



history of those vessels is almost a history of the early United States 

 navy. Among their first duties when they put to sea was to fight 

 French warships, when this country was about to get into trouble with 

 Napoleon. They then fought the pirates of North Africa, and there one 

 of the ships was burned by its own men to prevent its falling into the 

 hands of the enemy. "Old Ironsides," another of the live oak vessels, 

 fought fourteen ships, one at a time, during the war of 1812, and 

 whipped them all. Another of the vessels was less fortunate. It 

 was lost in battle, in which its commander, Lawrence, was killed, 

 whose last words have become historic: "Don't give up the ship." 

 Another came down to the Civil war and was sunk in Chesapeake bay. 



The invention of iron vessels ended the demand for live oak knees. 

 The government held its land where this timber grew for a long time, 

 but finally disposed of most of it. Part of that owned in Florida was 

 recently incorporated in one of the National Forests of that state. 



Live oak is a tree of striking appearance. It prefers the open, and 

 when of large size its spread of branches often is twice the height of the 

 tree. Its trunk is short, but massy, and of enormous strength ; otherwise 

 it could not sustain the great weight of its heavy branches. Some of the 

 largest limbs are nearly two feet in diameter where they leave the trunk, 

 and are fifty feet long, and some are seventy-five feet in length. Proba- 

 bly the only tree in this country with a wider spread of branches is the 

 valley oak of California. The live oak's trunk is too short for more than 

 one sawlog, and that of moderate length. The largest specimens may 

 be seventy feet high and six or seven feet in diameter, and yet not good 

 for a sixteen-foot log. The enormous roots are of no use now. When 

 land is cleared of this oak, the stumps are left to rot. 



The range of live oak extends 4,000 miles or more northeast and 

 southwest. It begins on the coast of Virginia and ends in Central 

 America. It is found in Lower California and in Cuba. In southern 

 United States it sticks pretty closely to the coastal plains, though large 

 trees grow 200 or 300 feet above tide level. In Texas it is inclined 

 to rise higher on the mountains, but live oak in Texas seldom meas- 

 ures up to that which grows further east. In southern Texas, where 

 the land is poor and dry, live oak degenerates into a shrub. Trees 

 only a foot high sometimes bear acorns. In all its range in this coun- 

 try, it is known by but one English name, given it because it is ever- 

 green. The leaves remain on the tree about thirteen months, follow- 

 ing the habit of a number of other oaks. When new leaves appear, 

 the old ones get out of the way. 



The wood is very heavy, hard, strong, and tough. In strength and 

 stiffness it rates higher than white oak, and it is twelve pounds a cubic 



