TPIE planter's guide. 



293 



misunderstanding of a passage in Evelyn, and circulated 

 on his authority, it will be most easily corrected by con- 

 sidering the passage itself, and comparing it with the con- 

 text of that intelligent writer/'' But as he expressly says 

 that the upright Oak is " fittest for timber,'' merely from 

 the uprightness and cleanness of its stem, it should be 

 remembered how much length of stem in any tree 

 depends on judicious pruning ; moreover, that one of the 

 new varieties of the Oak — namely, the white aboriginal 

 — eminently possesses the same advantage by nature as 

 the upright species. 



In respect to the third kind, namely, the mossy-cup 

 Oak, [Quercus muscosa,) from what we have seen of it 

 for about threescore years, it promises to rival in hardi- 

 ness the spreading Oak itself, while it surpasses in light- 

 ness and beauty the stalk-fruited species. It possesses, 

 likewise, the important property of thriving on very dry, 

 and even sandy soil, as well nearly as on strong loam, 

 and in that respect is preferable to the two other kinds. 

 This tree was first imported into Scotland about the 

 middle of the last century, from the district of Genesse 

 in New York, on Hudson's river, for the botanic garden 

 of Edinburgh, and seems well adapted to our insular 

 climate. 



As has been observed above, it is a remarkable circum- 

 stance that the most ornamental tree in nature should 

 also be the one the most extensively and strikingly 

 useful. There is scarce a trade or employment, a species 

 of manufacture, or an object of commerce, in which the 

 Oak is not more or less in request, for its wood, its bark, 

 its fruit, and even its leaves : to the architect, the joiner, 

 the millwright, the tanner, the husbandman, the dyer, tho 



* Note IY, 



