CHAPTER XIX.
THE AMERICAN LIVE OAK TREE ( Quercus virens.)
This tree is of very moderate dimensions when compared with the White Oak, its usual height being only about 35 to 45 feet, with a diameter of 12 to 18 inches. It is an evergreen, and is found principally in the Southern States of North America, and near to the sea-coast, which it seems to prefer to the more inland and sheltered situations.
The wood is dark brown in colour, hard, tough, strong, heavy, and very difficult to work, on account of the grain being waved or twisted. Its pores are very minute and the medullary rays unusually bright and distinct.
The largest logs of live Oak that I have seen imported did not exceed about 18 feet in length by 12 inches square, and generally they were of much smaller dimensions. They are usually of a crooked or compass shape, and are, therefore, very suitable for the framing of ships of from 300 to 800 tons burthen, in which only small scantlings are required. It is used extensively for this purpose in the Southern States; it makes good mallets for carpenters, and would be useful for cogs in machinery, and many other services where great weight is not an objection.
Judging from the appearance of this timber, it is stronger than any other known Oak, but, as it was im¬ possible to obtain a single straight specimen of the prescribed dimensions, viz., 2 × 2 × 84 inches, the usual tests could not be applied, and there are consequently no tables to show what it would actually bear.
