in Botany. See Quercus.

The oak has been long known by the title of monarch of the woods, and very justly. It was well known, and often very elegantly described, by the ancient poets. The following description from Virgil is exquisite:

Velati annofo validam cum robore quercum Alpini Boreae, nunc hinc, nunc flatibus illinc Eruere inter se certant: it fridora, et alia Confluent terram concupisco fipite frondes: Ipsa heret scopulis; et quantum vertice ad auras Ætherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. Aen. iv. 441.

As o'er th' aerial Alps sublimely spread, Some aged oak uprears his reverend head; This way and that the furious tempests blow, To lay the monarch of the mountains low; Th' imperial plant, though nodding at the sound, Though all his scatter'd honours flew the ground; Safe in his strength, and seated on the rock, In naked majesty defies the flock: High as the head shoots tow'ring to the skies, So deep the root in hell's foundation lies. PITT.

The ancient druids had a most profound veneration for oak trees. Pliny says, that "the druids (as the Gauls call their magicians or wise men) held nothing so sacred as the mistletoe, and the tree on which it grows, provided it be an oak. They make choice of oak groves in preference to all others, and perform no rites without oak leaves; so that they seem to have the name of druids from thence, if we derive their name from the Greek," &c. (See Druids—Definition, and No. 11.) Maximus Tyrius says the Celts or Gauls worshipped Jupiter under the figure of a lofty oak (A).

This useful tree grows to such a surprising magnitude, that were there not many well authenticated instances of them in our own country, they would certainly appear difficult of belief. In the 18th volume of the Gentleman's Magazine we have the dimensions of a leaf twelve inches in length and seven in breadth, and all the leaves of the same tree were equally large. On the estate of Woodhall, purchased in 1775 by Sir Thomas Rumbold, Bart., late governor of Madras, an oak was felled which fell for £42l. and measured 24 feet round. We are also told of one in Millwood roost, near Chaddelley, which was in full verdure in winter, getting its leaves again after the autumn ones fell off. In Hunter's Evelyn's Sylva, we have an account of a very remarkable oak at Greendale; which Gough, in his edition of Camden, thus minutely describes: "The Greendale oak, with a road cut through it, still bears one green branch. Such branches as have been cut or broken off are guarded from wet by lead. The diameter of this tree at the top, whence the branches issue, is 14 feet 2 inches; at the surface of the ground 11½ feet; circumference there 35 feet; height of the trunk 53; height of the arch 10, width 6. Mr. Evelyn mentions several more oaks of extraordinary size in Workop park."

In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1773 we have an account of one differing very essentially from the common one; it is frequent about St Thomas in Devonshire, and is in that county called Lucombe oak, from one William Lucombe who successfully cultivated it near Exeter. It grows as straight and handsome as a fir; its leaves are evergreen, and its wood as hard as that of the common oak. Its growth is so quick, as to exceed in 20 or 30 years the altitude and girth of the common one at 100. It is cultivated in various places; Cornwall, Somersetshire, &c.

M. du Hamel du Monceau, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris (who wrote a treatise on husbandry), gave an account in the year 1749 of an oak which he had kept in water eight years, and which yielded fine leaves every spring. The tree had, he says, four or five branches; the largest 19 or 20 lines round, and more than 18 inches long. It throve more in the two first years than it would have done in the best earth; it afterwards lost its vigour, and rather decayed; which he attributed to a defect in the roots rather than to a want of aliment.

(A) Camden informs us of a tradition (which, like most other traditions of this nature, seems to be founded in ignorance and fostered by credulity) respecting an oak near Malwood castle, where Rufus was killed, viz. that it budded on Christmas day, and withered before night. This tree, the same tradition reports to have been that against which Tyrrel's arrow glanced. M. de Buffon made some experiments on oak trees; the result of which is recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1754. He had compared barked with unbarked trees, and proves, we think with success, from a variety of trials, that timber barked and dried standing, is always heavier and considerably stronger than timber kept in its bark.

The bark of oak trees was formerly thought to be extremely useful in vegetation. One load (Mr Mills in his Treatise on Husbandry informs us) of oak bark, laid in a heap and rotted, after the tanners have used it for dressing of leather, will do more service to stiff cold land, and its effects will last longer, than two loads of the richest dung; but this has been strenuously controverted. (See OAK LEAVES.)

The bark, in medicine, is also a strong astringent; and hence stands recommended in hemorrhages, alvine fluxes, and other preternatural or immoderate secretions; and in these it is sometimes attended with good effects. Some have alleged, that by the use of this bark every purpose can be answered which may be obtained from Peruvian bark. But after several very fair trials, we have by no means found this to be the case. Besides the bark, the buds, the acorns and their cups are used; as also the galls, which are excrescences caused by insects on the oaks of the eastern countries, of which there are divers sorts; some perfectly round and smooth, some rougher with small protuberances, but all generally having a round hole in them. All the parts of the oak are styptic, binding, and useful in all kinds of fluxes and bleedings, either inward or outward. The bark is frequently used in gargarisms, for the relaxation of the uvula, and for sore mouths and throats: it is also used in refringent catarrhs and injections, against the prolapsus uteri or ani. The acorns, beaten to powder, are frequently taken by the vulgar for pains in the side. The only official preparation is the aqua germinum quercus.