[ s ] 
WHITE OAK. 
Qüercüs alba. Q . foliis suhæqualiter pînnatijîdis ; laciniis oblongis, obtusis, 
plerumque mtegerrimis ; fructu majusculo ; cupulâ craUratâ; tuber cu- 
loso-scabratâ ; glande ovatâ. 
Throughout tlie United States and in Canada, this tree is known by the 
name of White Oak. The environs of the small town of Trois Rivières in 
Canada, latitude 46° 20', and the lower part of the river Kennebeck in the 
district of Maine, are the most northern points at which it was observed - 
by my father and myself. Thence we traced it along the sea-shore to a 
distance beyond Cape Canaveral, latitude 28°, and westward from the 
Ocean to the country of the Illinois, an extent of more than 1200 miles 
from north-east to south-west, and nearly as much from east to west. It 
is, however, by no means equally diffused over this vast tract ; in the 
District of Maine, Vermont and Lower Canada, it is little multiplied, 
and its vegetation is repressed by the severity of the winter. In the lower 
part of the Southern States, in the Floridas and Lower Louisiana, it is 
found only on the borders of the swamps with a few other trees, which 
likewise shun a dry and barren soil. This region is generally so sandy, 
that it is covered with a continued growth of Pines, as will be more par- 
ticularly mentioned in the description of the Long-leaved Pine. The White 
Oak is observed also to be uncommon on lands of extraordinary fertility, 
like those of Tennessee, Kentucky and Genessee, and of all the spacious 
valleys watered by the western rivers, I have travelled whole days in 
those States without seeing a single stock, though the few that exist, both 
there and in the Southern States, exhibit the most luxuriant vegetation. 
The White Oak abounds chiefly in the Middle States and in Virginia, 
particularly in that part of Pennsylvania and Virginia which lies between 
the Alleghanies and the Ohio, a distance of about 150 miles, beginning at 
Brownsville on the Monongahela. Near Greensburgh, Macconelsvillc, 
Unionville and Washington Court-house, I have seen large forests, nine- 
tenths of which consisted of White Oaks, whose healthful appearance 
evinced the favourable nature of the soil, though in general they were 
not more than fifteen inches in diameter. East of the mountains, this tree 
is found in every exposure, and in every soil which is not extremely dry, 
or subject to long inundations ; but the largest stocks grow in humid 
places. In the western districts, where it composes entire forests, the 
face of the country is undulated, and the yellow soil, consisting partly of 
clay wdth a mixture of calcareous stones, yields abundant crops of wheat. 
By the foregoing observations, it appears that the severity of the climate, 
the fertility of the soil, its dryness or humidity, are the causes which ren- 
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