TREES OF AMERICA. 29 



five feet, and the trunk is from twelve inches 

 to two feet thick. The bark is hard, thick, 

 and black, and the wood heavy, close-grained, 

 and of a yellowish colour. It is chiefly used 

 for ship-timber, being in fact too good to be 

 made use of for any thing else ; it grows very 

 slowly, and is getting scarcer and scarcer 

 every day. The acorn is longer than that of 

 the white oak, and the leaf is of a quite differ- 

 ent shape. 



" The black oak is the most common of all ; 

 it grows in every part of the United States, 

 except at the remote north, and in all kinds of 

 soil. It is the largest, too, for it stretches tip 

 to the height of eighty or ninety feet, and the 

 trunk is often five feet in thickness ; the bark 

 is very rough and black, and the wood is 

 reddish and coarse-grained. It is the bark of 

 this kind that is most used in tanning, be- 

 cause it is the cheapest, and has the most 

 tannin. The inner bark is called quercitron, 

 and is very much used for dying ; the colour 

 it gives is a brownish yellow. The wood is 

 employed in building, for fences, and in 

 making staves and heading for flour barrels 

 &c. The acorn and leaf are different from 

 those of the white and the live oaks. 



