22 
SWAMP WHITE OAK. 
ory. On the shores of Lake Champlain, which occasionally offer similar 
situations, particularly at a little distance from Skeensborough, it is mingled 
with the White Maples, which occupy the next line to the Willows in 
retiring from the shore. 
The Swamp White Oak is a beautiful tree, more than 70 feet in height, 
of which the vegetation is vigorous and the foliage luxuriant. The leaves 
are 6 or 8 inches long and 4 inches broad, smooth and of a slightly dark 
green above, downy and light colored beneath ; they are entire toward the 
base, which is cuneiform, but are widened and coarsely toothed for two- 
thirds of their length toward the summit. The tree is distinguished when 
young, by the form of its base and by the down upon its leaves, which is 
more sensible to the touch than on any analogous species. At a riper age 
the lower side of the leaf is of a silvery white, which is strikingly contrasted 
with the bright green of the upper surface ; hence the specific name of 
discolor was given it by Dr. Muhlenberg. 
The acorns are sweet, but seldom abundant ; they are rather large, of a 
brown complexion, and contained in a spreading cup edged with short 
slender filaments, more downy within than those of any other Oak, and 
supported by peduncles 1 or 2 inches in length. 
The trunk is clad in a scaly grayish-white bark. The wood is strong, 
elastic, and heavier than that of the White Oak. In stocks more than a 
foot in diameter, the grain is fine and close, and the pores are nearly oblit- 
erateçl. It splits easily, and in a straight line, and is esteemed next in 
quality to the White Oak, though from its rareness it is but accidentally 
employed in the arts. 
If, as I incline to believe, the Swamp White Oak is found by more 
accurate experiments to be superior to the White Oak, it must be consi- 
dered as a very valuable tree, and its increase should be favoured at the 
expense of the Red-flowering Maple, the Bitternut Hickory, the Hornbeam, 
and other species which grow in the same exposures. It seems also to 
deserve a place in the forests of Europe, where, in moist grounds, it might 
be blended or alternated with the Ashes, the Alders and the Poplars. 
PLATE VII. 
A branch with leaves and fruit of the natural size. 
(See NuttalPs Supplement, Vol. 1, p. 13.) 
