POST OAK. 
19 
where the Pine and Oak forests unite, is analogous in soil to that portion 
of Virginia of which we have been speaking, and abounds in the Post 
Oak ; but nearer the sea, the barren wastes are covered with the Long- 
leaved Pine, and the Oak is seen only in the lowest parts of the swamps, 
about the plantations, and on tracts that have been exhausted by cultiva- 
tion and abandoned. 
The leaves are borne by short petioles, and are of a dusky green above, 
and grayish beneath. They are four or five inches in length, thick, and 
even coriaceous toward the end of summer, deeply and regularly sinuated, 
and are divided into four or five rounded lobes, of which the two nearest 
the summit are the broadest. Toward the fall the ribs are of a rosy tint, 
instead of a purplish red, like those of the Scarlet Oak. The fructification 
seldom fails. The acorns are small, oval, and covered for a third of their 
length, with a slightly rugged grayish cup. They are very sweet, and form 
a delicious food for squirrels and wild turkeys ; hence the tree is sometimes 
called Turkey Oak. 
The height of this species rarely exceeds 40 or 50 feet, with a diameter 
of 15 inches. Its summit, even when compressed in the forests, is dispro- 
portionately large, owing probably to the early division of the trunk into 
several limbs, with which the secondary branches form more open angles 
than is common on other trees. The branches also are bent into elbows 
at certain distances, which gives so peculiar an appearance to the tree, 
that it is easily distinguished when the leaves are fallen. The bark upon 
the trunk is thin and of a greyish white. The wood is yellowish, with no 
tinge of red. Growing upon a less humid soil, it is less elastic, but finer 
grained, stronger and more durable than the White Oak : hence it is pre- 
ferred for posts, and is used with advantage by wheel- wrights and coopers. 
In ship building, it is used principally for the knees, and is admitted into 
the lower part of the frame. It rarely furnishes side-planks or timber of 
considerable length ; for this reason it is less esteemed than the White Oak, 
and it is, besides, less common, except in Maryland and certain parts of 
Virginia. 
The preference given in the West Indies to the staves from Baltimore 
and Norfolk is due, in a great measure, to their being made of the Post 
Oak. 
This tree, though only of secondary size, should be propagated in 
America, and introduced into the forests of Europe. 
PLATE V. 
A branch with leaves and fruit of the natural size. 
(See NuttalPs Supplement, Vol. 1, p. 13.) 
