476 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 28, 18S8. 



The Live Oak. 



THE Live Oak {Quercits virens) is a familiar object to 

 all persons acquainted with the vegetation of our 

 south Atlantic and Gulf States. It is a large tree, although 

 rarely growing to a greater height than fifty feet, with a 

 short, thick trunk, sometimes seven or eight feet in diame- 

 ter, and spreading, curved and often twisted branches. 

 The trunk, which is covered with a deeply furrowed and 

 very dark bark, often divides near the ground into several 

 large branches, as in the characteristic specimen which 

 appears in our illustration below, and which is growing 

 near New Orleans. Sometimes the trunk does not divide 

 until it has reached a height of twelve or fifteen feet, when 

 it sends out immense horizontal branches which have 



ascends to an elevation of nearly 8,000 feet. It is found on 

 the coast of Guatemala and in Costa Rica. The Live Oak 

 attains a great size and is very common upon the Sea 

 Islands of the Carolinas and Georgia and upon the adja- 

 cent mainland. It is common, also, upon the Gulf coast 

 east of the Mississippi. The distribution of this tree is 

 interesting and not easily explained. Abundant on the 

 humid coast of the south Atlantic States, which must be 

 taken as the region of its greatest multiplication and devel- 

 opment, it is able to endure the extremely arid climate 

 of western Texas, where few broad-leaved trees can main- 

 tain a foothold. There are but two trees, moreover, so 

 far as is now known, belonging to the real North Ameri- 

 can flora, which extend into the tropical climate of Central 

 America — the Live Oak and Phius Cubeiisis. The latter. 



Fig. 74. — The Live Oalt (Querats virciis). 



been known to shade a space more th^n a hundred feet in 

 diameter. The leaves are from two to three inches long, 

 oval-lanceolate, obtuse, with entire and strongly revolute 

 margins, or sometimes, upon vigorous young shoots, 

 sharply toothed. They are coriaceous, dark green and 

 lustrous on the upper, pale and pubescent on the lower 

 surface, and remain upon the branches for twelve months, 

 falling as the leaves of the succeeding year unfold. The 

 cup is top-shaped, hoary, long-stemmed, and encloses the 

 base only of the oblong, dark chestnut colored or nearly 

 black acorn, which rarely exceeds an inch in length. 



The Live Oak is found growing in the neighborhood 01 

 the coast from southern Virginia to Mexico; in Texas, west 

 of the Trinity River, it extends into the interior, often as a 

 low shrub, as far as the high mountain ranges in the 

 western part of the state and into northern Mexico, where it 



although it is not found quite so far north as the Live pak, 

 is confined to the seaboard from Carolina to the Missis- 

 sippi, and then reappears upon the coast and on the uplands 

 of Honduras and on the Guatemala coast. 



The value of the wood of the Live Oak in ship-building 

 was recognized soon after the settlement of the Southern 

 States, and after the acquirement of Florida by the gov- 

 ernment of the United States, it created a number of reserva- 

 tions upon the west coast of the peninsula for the purpose 

 of maintaining a supply of this wood for naval construc- 

 tion. It is very heavy, hard, tough and strong, of a light 

 brown or yellow color, and susceptible of a beautiful 

 polish. The large branches, often growing nearly at right 

 angles with the trunk, made the strongest and best ribs for 

 large ships which could be found ; and at one time there 

 seemed a probability that all the large specimensof this 



