46 
BLACK OAK. 
White Oak, the Post Oak, and other species of annual fructification. It is 
rarely employed in building, and is used by wheelwrights only at Baltimore, 
where it is preferred to the White Oak for the fellies of large wheels. 
The principal merit of the Spanish Oak, which gives it a superiority 
over most other species in the United .States, resides in its bark. This is 
preferred for tanning coarse leather, which it renders whiter and more 
supple ; it is consequently sold at Philadelphia and Wilmington a fourth 
dearer than that of the other Oaks : the leather is said to be improved by 
the addition of a small quantity of the bark of the Hemlock Spruce. 
The Sj)anish Oak is adapted to the climate of the centre of France, if 
we may judge from its multiplication in the nurseries and in the gardens of 
amateurs. The stocks that have sprung from the acorns which I sent home 
during my residence in America bear as yet only three-lobed leaves, but 
they will become falcated at a maturer age. 
From the inferiority of its wood, this species would not, in my opinion, 
deserve a place in our forests, though its bark should prove equal to that of 
the European Oak. Butin the Southern States, when some species of trees 
are to be multiplied in preference to others, the Spanish Oak alone should 
be spared among the Red Oaks, as, besides its superiority in other respects, 
it has the advantage of flourishing on lands of a middling quality, such as 
compose a large part of that section of the United States. 
PLATE XXIIL 
Ji branch with leaves and fruit of the natural size. 
BLACK OAK. 
Q.UERCUS TiNCTORiA. Q.folHs profimdè sinuosis, subtus pulverukntis j cupulâ 
turbinatâ, squamosa ; glande brevi ovatâ. 
Except the District of Maine, the northern part of New Hampshire, 
Vermont and Tennessee, this species is found throughout the United States 
on both sides of the Alleghanies, and it is everywhere called Black Oak. 
It is more abundant in the Middle States, and in the upper part of the 
Carolinas and Georgia, than on the southern coast. 
