THE OAK. 275 
evergreen oak. In summer the tree has very much the appear- 
ance of the British oak; in autumn its foliage appears more mas- 
sive, dark green, and glossy. It is the fastest growing broad- 
leaved evergreen tree that we know adapted to the climate of 
Scotland. Like other hybrids, it is propagated by grafts, 
which, when inserted on healthy stocks of the common species, 
attain the height of four or five feet in two years; and after- 
wards its progress is fully equal to that of the common oak till 
it is twenty years old. We have never heard of its having 
yielded acorns ; and we know that several specimens forty years 
old were never seen in blossom, though at that age they were 
forty feet high. It is believed that the tree will not attain to 
& great size, and that it is of rapid growth only when young ; 
but as healthy specimens are found to retain the leaves of the 
former year throughout the summer, it is a better evergreen 
than any other hybrid, and its deep green and glossy foliage 
will always recommend it as an ornamental tree. 
Each of the red, white, and black American oaks compre- 
hends a great number of species, some of which become large 
spreading trees; but as their timber is generally soft and 
porous, they are not profitably cultivated. The first-named 
division is exceedingly ornamental, conspicuous among which 
is Q. coccinea, or Scarlet oak, indigenous to New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, and Georgia. It was introduced into Britain 
about the end of the seventeenth century, where it grows in 
many instances more rapidly than the common oak. The 
midland counties of England contain many fine specimens of 
this tree. One at Croome, in Worcestershire, which stands 
about 100 feet high, attained the height of ninety feet in 
seventy-five years. At Strathfieldsaye, in Hampshire, a tree 
of this species is from ninety-five to 100 feet high, and the 
diameter of the trunk is three and a half feet. The species 
produces acorns in Britain ; but it is principally propagated 
from American seeds, which must be sown immediately on 
their arrival, The confinement to which the acorns are sub- 
jected during the voyage is apt to occasion fermentation, the 
slightest touch of which creates vegetation, and unless the 
