LAUREL OAK. 
35 
more attention, it is called Jack Oak, Black Jack Oak, and sometimes, 
from the form of its leaves. Laurel Oak. The last denomination I have 
preserved as the most appropriate, though perhaps it is less common than 
the first. 
I observed this tree for the first time in Pennsylvania, near Bedford, on 
the Juniata, upon the road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and it does not 
exist in the more northern States. I found it abundant only beyond the 
mountains, and particularly near Washington Court-house, and in some 
parts of Kentucky and Tennessee. From my father’s observations, it 
appears to be more multiplied in the country of the Illinois than in the 
places I have just mentioned, and it is called by the French Chêne à lattes^ 
Lath Oak. 
In the western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, small lawns, covered 
only with tall grass, are frequently seen in the forests, around which the 
Laurel Oak forms entire groves : insulated stocks are also found in cool 
humid situations. It is probable from its flourishing in open exposures 
that it is most abundant in the country of the Illinois, which consists of 
immeasurable savannas stretching in every direction, to which the forests 
bear no sensible proportion. 
The Laurel Oak is 40 or 50 feet high, and 12 or 15 inches in diameter. 
Its trunk, even when old, is clad in a smooth bark, and for three-fourths of 
its height is laden with branches. It has an uncouth form when bared in 
the winter, but is beautiful in the summer when clad in its thick, tufted 
foliage. The leaves are long, lanceolate, entire, and of a light, shining 
green. 
The wood is hard and heavy, though its pores are open. As the trunk 
is branchy and often crooked, it is considered, wherever I have observed 
it, as fit only for fuel ; but my father, who first described it, says that the 
French of Illinois use it for shingles. Probably in that region it attains 
much greater dimensions ; but in my opinion the want of better species 
only can account for its use. Its wood is inferior to that of the Willow 
Oak, which it nearly resembles. 
This tree has no merit but its singular foliage, and it deserves the atten- 
tion only of amateurs desirous of adorning their rural retreats with a variety 
of exotic trees. 
PLATE XV. 
A branch with leaves and fruit of the natural size. 
