The Oak. 



tender; the acorn ripens early in the fall, and if vrarm rains 

 come in the month of November, which they very fre- 

 quently do, the acorns still clinging to the tree, actually 

 sprout before they are shaken down by the winds. I have 

 not yet succeeded in bringing over any considerable quan- 

 tity in really good order ; but I think that, if they were 

 beaten off the trees before they were quite v\pe, then dried in 

 the sun, and packed in very dry sand, they would come to 

 hand perfectly safe and sound. The soil in which the White 

 Oak delights is precisely that in which our English Oak 

 flourishes best. 



443. The Black Oak {Quercus Tinctoria). This Oak is 

 adorned with a very beautiful leaf ; very large, most 

 curiously formed, of a fine green during the summer, then 

 purple for a month, and then nearly scarlet for another 

 month. This Oak flourishes in the poorest of soils, or, to 

 make use of the words of Michaux, " where the soil is 

 lean, gravelly, and uneven and yet it frequently attains 

 the height of ninety feet, with a trunk four or five feet in 

 diameter, 



444. The wood is reddish, with empty pores ; but it is, 

 however, very often used for purposes for which the WnrrE 

 Oak is used, when the latter cannot be easily obtained. 

 The hark of this Oak is of great value, and many tons of it 

 are imported into England annually from America. From 

 parts of the bark of this tree is obtained the Quercitron, of 

 which great use is made in dying wool, silk, and paper- 

 hangings. According to several authors who have written 

 on this subject, and among others, Doctou Bancroft, to 

 whom, says Michaux, "we are indebted for this discovery, 

 *^ one part of Quercitron yields as much colouring matter as 

 *^ eight or ten parts of woad." 



