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THE planter's GUIDE. 



darker gi'een, and, therefore, it has sometimes been called 

 the Bay Oak ; the leaves, likewise, adhere to the tree dur- 

 ing the winter. 



This species, I conceive, particularly deserves to be 

 called the native Oak of Britain, it being much hardier 

 than the upright kind. Also it is a much later plant ; 

 and abounds in ancient woodlands and native copses, on 

 the banks of lakes and rivers. It has two varieties, as 

 above stated, the black and the white : the former is 

 known by the black, or dark colour of its bark ; the 

 latter by its shining silvery bark, its clean and upright 

 stem, and resemblance in that respect to the upright Oak. 

 But both are remarkable for the fulness of their leaves in 

 winter ; when, on the first frosts in November, before the 

 upright species is usually affected, they turn to a brownish 

 yellow, and continue, like the beech, to clothe the tree, until 

 the new foliage displace them in the following summer. 



The first-mentioned or stalk-fruited Oak {Quercus 

 pedunculata) grows much taller and more erect than the 

 other, and has been thence named the upright Oak. It 

 is considerably cleaner in the stem ; it has, also, smoother 

 bark ; and, although the grain is softer, less close and 

 tough, and lighter in the colour, it furnishes, in consequence 

 of its height of stem, timber of superior length, and more 

 applicable to many purposes. It bears, likewise, a larger 

 acorn, with very long foot-stalks, — hence its name of stalk- 

 fruited ; but the leaves have no foot-stalks, and drop off 

 at the fall, or at least early in the winter. It is, upon the 

 whole, an earlier and much less hardy tree than the 

 other, and wiU not thrive in the same exposm^es. That 

 it yields timber of a superior quality to that of the 

 spreading Oak, has been said by some. But it is one of 

 those popular errors which are contradicted by fact and 

 experience ; and, as it seems to have originated in the 



