part of Georgia and the two Carolinas. The leaves of the lower branches assume a different form from those of the higher branches; the latter are more sharp and pointed. The plate given in the History of Oaks only represents the leaves of the lower branches, and the shape of them when quite young. Amid these numerous species and varieties of oaks, the leaves of which vary, as to form, according to their age, which generally confounds them with each other; notwithstanding, there are certain characteristic signs by which the quercus tinctoria may be always known. In all the other species the stalk, fibres, and leaves themselves are of a lightish green, and towards the autumn their colour grows darker, and changes to a reddish hue; on the contrary, the stalk, fibres and leaves of the black oak are of a yellowish cast, and apparently very dry; again, the yellow grows deeper towards the approach of winter. This remark is sufficient not to mistake them; notwithstanding, there is another still more positive, by which this species may be recognised in winter, when even it has lost its leaves; that is, by the bitter taste of its bark, and the yellow colour {18} which the spittle assumes when chewed. The bark of the quercus cinerea has nearly the same property; and, finding this, I made an observation of it to Dr. Bancroft, who was at Charleston in the winter of 1802. Upon the whole, it is impossible to be mistaken concerning these two kinds of oaks; for the latter grows only in the dryest parts of the southern states. It is very rarely more than four inches in diameter, and eighteen feet in height; its leaves are lanceolated: on the other hand, the quercus tinctoria grows upwards of eighty feet in height, and its leaves are in several lobes, and very long.
Among the species of acorns that I sent over from the
