BLACK OAK. 
47 
The Black Oak flourishes in a poorer soil than the White Oak. In 
Maryland and certain districts of Virginia where the soil is lean, gravelly 
and uneven, it is constantly united in the forests with the Scarlet, Spanish 
and Post Oaks, and the Alockernut Hickory, with which the Yellow Pine 
is also frequently mingled. 
This Oak is one of the loftiest trees of North America, being 80 or 90 
feet high and 4 or 5 feet in diameter. The leaves are large, deeply laci- 
niated, and divided into four or five lobes : they resemble those of the 
Scarlet Oak, but have less deep and open sinuses, are less shining, of a 
duller green, and in the spring and during a part of the summer have their 
surface roughened with small glands, which are sensible to the eye and to 
the touch. The same appearance is observed on the young shoots. I 
have remarked that the leaves of the young stocks change in the autumn 
to a dull red, and those of the old trees to yellow, beginning with the 
petiole. 
The trunk is covered with a deeply furrowed bark of middling thick- 
ness, and always of a black or very deep brown colour, whence probably 
is derived the name of the tree. North-east of Pennsylvania, the com- 
plexion of the bark is the only character by which it can be distin- 
guished from the Red, Scarlet and Gray Oaks, when the leaves are fallen. 
Further south, this character is not sufficient to distinguish it from the 
Spanish Oak, the bark of which is of the same colour, and recourse must 
be had to the buds, which, on the Black Oak, are longer, more acuminate, 
and more scaly. All doubt may be removed by chewing a bit of the cel- 
ular tissue of each ; that of the Black Oak is very bitter and gives a yel- 
low tinge to the saliva, which is not the case with the other. 
The wood is reddish and coarse-grained, with empty pores : it is, how- 
ever, more esteemed for strength and durability than that of any other 
species of biennial fructification. At Philadelphia it is employed for want 
of White Oak, in building ; and the farmers of the Northern States, with 
false economy, substitute it in the place of the White Oak for fences. 
As this species is abundant in the Northern and Middle States, it fur- 
nishes a large proportion of the Red Oak staves exported to the colonies or 
employed at home to contain flour, salted provisions and mêlasses. 
The bark is extensively used in tanning, as it is easily procured and is 
rich in tannin. The only inconvenience which attends it is imparting a 
yellow color to the leather, which must be discharged by a particular 
process, to prevent its staining the stockings ; it is a great error to assert 
that this color augments its value. 
From the cellular tissue of the Black Oak is obtained the quercitron, of 
which great use is made in dying wool, silk and paper-hangings. Accord- 
ing to several authors who have written on this subject, and among others 
Dr. Bancroft, to whom we are indebted for this discovery, one part of 
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