OAK

(Germ, eiche.) The general name of a well known hard-wooded forest tree, much cultivated for the purposes of timber, particularly in ship-building, and in other cases when much exposure to the weather is required. There are several varieties of this valuable tree; but the common English oak (Quercus robur) claims precedence of every other. The oak timber imported from America is very inferior to that of this country: the oak from the central parts of Europe is also inferior, especially in compactne and resistance of cleavage. The knotty oak of England, the " unwedgeable and gnarled oak," as Shakspeare called it, when cut down at a proper age (from 50 to 70 years), is the best timber known. Some timber is harder, some more difficult to rend, and some le capable of being broken acro ; but none contains all the three qualities in so great and equal proportions; and thus, for at once supporting a weight, resisting a strain, and not splintering by a cannon shot, the timber of the oak is superior to every other. A fine oak is one of the most picturesque of trees: it conveys to the mind a ociations of strength and duration which are very impre ive. The oak stands up against the blast, and does not take, like other trees, a twisted form from the action of the winds. Except the cedar of Lebanon, no tree is so remarkable for the stoutne of its limbs: they do not exactly spring from the trunk, but divide from it: and thus it is sometimes difficult to know 3H 2 [s. 848]