OAK TREE, 



QUERCUS. 



CORyHDE.E. MOXCECIA POLYANDRIA. 



French, chene ; Italian, querela. 



There are many species of Oak, which to describe, 

 with their uses ancient and modern, and all the fables or 

 histories connected with them, would' be to write a vo- 

 lume upon that subject only, — and a volume of consi- 

 derable magnitude. For the present purpose it will 

 suffice to notice a few of the more important. 



Among the American Oaks are several species which 

 are evergreen. Of those which are natives of Europe, 

 there is but one properly so called, though others are 

 sometimes termed so, because they generally retain their 

 leaves until the shooting of new ones drives off the old. 

 It has been observed of the Oak, that the foliage is 



" Tenacious of the stem, and firm against the wind." 



The Kermes Oak, Quercus coccifera, is of humble 

 growth, and chiefly mentioned on account of a red gall 

 collected from it, occasioned by the puncture of an insect 

 called the coccus ilicis. This furnished the ancients with 

 a scarlet dye, called coccus, or coccineus, wliich superseded 

 the purpura obtained by the Phoenicians from the shell- 

 fish murex^ and supported its reputation until the dis- 

 covery of America, when it yielded to the cochineal, an 



