The Oak. 



445. The wood is inferior in quality to that of our Oak ; 

 but its great height and size, the rapidity of its growth in 

 the coldest of climates and the poorest of soils, and, above 

 all, the value of its bark in dying, recommend it strongly 

 to the notice of English planters. I should suppose that a 

 wood of this Oak would come to be fit to bark in England 

 in a very few years after the sowing of the acorns ; and 

 these acorns have a very thick shelly preserve well, and 

 come from America in excellent condition. I have had the 

 plants two feet high, and many of them more than that, in 

 the month of October, after sowing them in the spring of 

 the same year. 



446. The Live Oak {Qiiercus Vivens), Of all the Oaks, 

 however, this is the one of the most value. It is evergreen, 

 has smooth oblong leaves, of a deep green upon the upper 

 side, and whitish on the under side. This tree grows well 

 in England, and ripens its seed in England ; there are 

 several trees of it in the King's gardens at Kew, and I have 

 seen acorns upon them in a very perfect state. The wood 

 is as durable as that of the Locust ; but it is a great deal 

 heavier than that or any other wood that I ever saw. It 

 does not afford large timber ; but is extraordinarily prolific 

 in those knees which are so very useful in the building of 

 ships. I do not find that it ever grows in America to a 

 much greater height or size than it reaches here. Michaux 

 tells us that it flourishes best near the sea, and is proof 

 against all storms and blasts. He frequently saw it upon 

 the sea-beach, or half buried in the movable sands upon 

 the downs, where it had preserved its freshness and vigour, 

 though exposed during a long lapse of time to the fiu'y of 

 the winter winds and to the ardour of the summer sun. 

 This tree naturally spreads its head somewhat in the form 

 of a good stout, lofty apple-tree ; this circumstance causes 



