OAK. 289 
The Black Oak class is characterized by leaves having acute 
lobes and bristle-pointed teeth; acorns bitter, maturing the 
second year, inner surface of shell of acorn woolly; wood por- 
ous and brittle; roots spreading, seldom having clearly defined 
tap roots except when young. 
Oak bark is used for tanning leather. The cork of com- 
merce is the older bark of the Quercus suber of southern Europe. 
Galls caused by insects puncturing the young and tender shoots 
are produced on the branches of most oak trees, and are im- 
ported in large quantities from Asia Minor, China and else- 
where to be used in the manufacture of inks and dyes. The 
bark of most species is tonic and astringent, and as a decoction 
is sometimes employed as an external remedy. 
Oak is in general use for ship and car building, general con- 
struction, canoes, carriages and wagons, furniture and finish- 
ing, school apparatus, billiard tables, cooperage, gunstocks, 
drawing instruments, pumps, cheese boxes, basket work, um- 
brella sticks and canes. 
Propagation.—All the species grow readily from seeds which 
have been kept properly, but if allowed to get dry they are 
liable to lose their vitality. The seedlings have tap roots often 
three to four feet long when the top is not more than a foot 
high. On this account the trees are often very difficult and un- 
certain to transplant, but if the tap roots are cut off a foot from 
the surface of the ground when the trees are one year old they 
form side roots and then may be moved with a reasonable 
degree of certainty within the next few years before they have 
formed new tap roots. 
Quercus alba. White Oak. 
Leaves short petioled, oblong or obovate in outline, obliquely 
cut into three to nine oblong or linear and obtuse mostly entire 
lobes, smooth excepting when young, pale or glaucous under- 
neath, bright green above, turning to a soft wine color in 
autumn. Fruit an edible acorn maturing the first year, hence 
borne on the shoot of the season, three-fourths to one inch 
long, oblong, often peduncled, not more than one-third covered 
by the hemispherical saucer-shaped naked cup which is rough 
or tubercled at maturity. A noble and picturesque tree some- 
times attaining a height of 1oo feet wth a trunk six feet in di- 
ameter, but much smaller within our range. Its bark is rough, 
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