. A description and history of vegetable substances, used in the arts, and in domestic economy . during the course of their travels in SouthAmerica. Ol the various species of oak, some maybe classed with shrubs, others with the most majestictrees of the forest; some are evergreens, and othersare deciduous, or lose their leaves during the species from which the best timber is derived,which is by far the most abundant in Britain, and anative of it, is the Common Oak (Quercus robur). The cut opposite exhibits the leaf, flower, andfruit (the type) of this tree. We shall introduce thesam
. A description and history of vegetable substances, used in the arts, and in domestic economy . during the course of their travels in SouthAmerica. Ol the various species of oak, some maybe classed with shrubs, others with the most majestictrees of the forest; some are evergreens, and othersare deciduous, or lose their leaves during the species from which the best timber is derived,which is by far the most abundant in Britain, and anative of it, is the Common Oak (Quercus robur). The cut opposite exhibits the leaf, flower, andfruit (the type) of this tree. We shall introduce thesame mode of illustration in other instances. The oak timber imported from America is muchinferior to that of the common oak of England: theoak from the central parts of continental Europe isalso inferior, especially in compactness and resistanceof cleavage. The knotty oak of England, the un-wedgeable and gnarled oak, as Shakspeare called it,—and in these two words described itsleading pro-perties better than all the botanists, — when cutdown at a proper age, (from fifty to seventy years,). Common Oak—Qiicrcus rubur. is really the best timber that is known. Some tim-ber is harder, some more difficult to rend, andsome less capable of being broken across; but nonecontains all the three qualities in so great and soequal proportions; and thus, for at once supportinga weight, resisting a strain, and not splintering by acannon shot, the timber of the oak is superior to everyother. Excepting the sap wood, the part nearestthe bark, which is not properly matured, it is verydurable, whether in air, in earth, or in water; and itis said that no insects in the island will eat into theheart of oak, as they do, sooner or later, into mostof the domestic and many of the foreign kinds oftimber. Important as the oak is now in the arts, there was aperiod in the history of Britain when it was valued prin-cipally, for its acorns. It is not recorded that acorns b2 4 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. were ever
Size: 1371px × 1823px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorsoc, bookcentury1800, bookiddescriptionhisto00sociuoft
