ECONOMICAL USES OF VARIOUS PLANTS. 
213 
Apple-tr*^»es, which bear heavy loads of fruit are short-lived 
ill comparison with the oak which perfects from each flower 
but one of six seeds, and this fruit is but a small acorn. 
Some trees exist which are supposed to be of great age ; in 
the Island of Teneriffe is the Dkac^na draco^ which, according 
to many circumstances, appears to have some thousand years 
of age. In England, at Blenheim Park, it is said, may be seen 
trunks of trees which shaded the bower of fair Rosamond, 
supposed to be not less than a thousand years old. At Hartford, 
in Connecticut, is the Charter-oak, which was a hollow tree in 
the days of James II., nearly two hundred years ago. In the 
hollow of this tree was concealed the charter of the state, when 
the king of England, through his agents, attempted to deprive 
the colonists of that guarantee of their civil rights. This oak 
must, even at that period, have been an aged tree. 
325. Economical uses of various Plants. — We perceive among 
the various species of vegetable beings, some which seem destined 
only to heautify and enliven the earth ; others^ with little or no 
beauty, are valuable only for their utility and in some instances 
we find utility and beauty united. Trees are not only beautiful, 
but many of them are highly useful, affording fuel, shelter, and 
shade, nuts, berries, and other fruits ; their bark is used in tan- 
ning, for medicine, and spices ; and their sap, secretions, fruit, 
and roots, furnish sugar and various medicinal extracts. Trees, 
with respect to their wood, may be divided : 1st, into such as 
have hard wood, as the oak, elm, apple, &c. : 2d, such as have 
soft wood, as the poplar and willow : 3d, such as have resinous 
wood, as the pine and fir: 4th, such as are evergreens but not 
resinous, as the evergreen oak of the south of Europe. Hard 
wood is considered best for fuel ; as it contains the greatest 
quantity of carbon it causes a more intense and permanent heat : 
resinous wood containing more hydrogen, burns with a more 
brilliant flame. 
326. The fermented juice of the grape produces wine. Grain 
of different kinds produces gin, whisky, &c. Apples, by their 
termentatiou produce cider; this liquor, concentrated by dis- 
tillation, produces brandy and alcohol. The vineyards of Italy 
and France, and of some of the Atlantic islands, are the most 
celebrated for their wine. In America, the vine does not flom*- 
ish in the same luxuriance as upon the eastern continent. 
Grasses are the palms of cold climates ; they are of the class of 
monocotyledons, and have endogenous stems. Some are pe- 
rennial, some annual, the meadow-grasses are of the former kind. 
The grains, Indian corn, and rice, are annual. Gramineous 
Aged trees — Cliarter-oafc.— 325. Some plants chiefly valuable for beauty, others for utility — DivisiOB 
gf trees with respect to wood. — 326. Liquor.s produced from plants — Grasses. 
