No. 133.1 405 



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Mr. R. L. Pell remarked on the 



FOREST TREES OF AMERICA AND THEIR USES. 



Among those the white oak, Querciis Alba, is justly esteemed 

 beyond all otliers, and Is used in preference to any for tlie keel 

 triinnels, side planks and frames of ships, being exceedingly tough, 

 strong, iind easy to bend, but not easily admitting water. They 

 grow Well upon gravelly soil, and equally so on a moist clay 

 which most trees fail to^ flourish upon. Shipwrights generally 

 agree that the European white oak, is tougher and far mi>re last- 

 ing than the American ; the grain of the former is closer than the 

 latter, still it is so nuich prized abroad, that immense quantities 

 are annually shipped to England ; in half a century I fear it 

 will be considered our rarest tree. Oaks set out for timber trees, 

 must not be planted nearer each other than thirty-five teet, and 

 should be well staked to protect them from the action of the 

 winds, and surrounded with thorns, or a frame to prevent cattle 

 or sht-ep from rubbing against them, as the oil contained in their 

 hair, or wool, is poisonous to them before well established. The 

 best oak timber is that found in a cold aspect, exposed to bleak 

 winds. Chiron made Achilles' spear of a tree thus grown. In 

 tran>plantiiig, the fibres and spongioles must be protected with 

 the dirt adhering to them; they are the mouths through which 

 the nourishment is drawn in to maintain it. The large roots are 

 only useful to sustain the stem. The position of the tree before 

 removal must be particularly observed, as the part facing the 

 5outh is much more dilated, as appears in their horizontal sections, 

 by the excentricity of their hyperbolical circles, being, on trans- 

 plantation, turned to the north, destroys the tree five times out 

 •of ten. 



LIVE OAK (quercus virens). 



A very valuable species, growing on the coasts of several of our 

 foutiitrn states, within twenty miles of the sea. This tree fre- 

 -quently reaches the height of fifty feet, but rarely over that; in a 

 few instances trunks have been discovered twenty-three feet in 

 circumference. At a distance Irom the observer, when standing 

 alone, it resembles an apple tree. Its numerous limbs produce an 



