OAJA'00, OAXACA. or GUAXACA, a city of Mexico, capital of a state of the name, stands on the river Rio Verde, 210 DI. s.s.e. of Mexico. It covers an area 2 in. in length by 11 in breadth, is well built, with open streets. interspersed with plantations, on which the cochineal insect feeds, and has about 25,000 inhabitants. Silk, cotton, sugar, and chocolate are manufactured.
OAK. Quercus; A genus of trees aud-shruba of the natural order. evpulffetve, having a three-celled ovary; and around (not aligidar) called an in a scaly truncated cup. the lower part of it invested by the cup. The species are very numerous, natives of temperate and tropical countries. A few species are faun! in Europe. North America produces many; and many are natives of mountainous regions in the torrid zone; some are found at low elevations in the valleys of the Himalaya, some even at the level of the sea in the Malay peninsula and Indian islands. But in the peninsula of India and in Ceylon none are found; and none in tropical Africa, in Australia, or in South America. The oaks have alternate simple leaves, which are entire in some, but in the greater number variously lobed and sinuated or cut; ever green In some, but more generally deciduous. Many of them are trees of great size, famous for the strength and durability of their timber, as well as for the majesty of their appearance, and their great longevity. Throughout an parts of Europe, except the extreme n., two species are found, or varieties of one species, the COMMON OAK (Q. rebut); one (Q. pectunculata) having the acorns on longish stalks, the other (Q. sessslsflora) leaving them almost without stalks. Other differences have been pointed out, but they are regarded by some of the most eminent and careful botanists as merely accidental, and not coincident with these; while, as to the length of the fruit-stalks, every inter mediate gradation occurs. Both varieties occur iu Britain, the first being themost preva lent, as it is generally in the n. of Europe; the second being more abundant in more southern countries. The short-stalked oak is sometimes called DURMAST OAK in Eng land. It has been much disputed which is entitled to be considered the true British oak; and much alarm has occasionally been expressed lest new plantations should be made of the wrong kind; whilst the most contradictory statements have been made as to the com parative value and characters of the timber. The oak succeeds best in loamy soils, and especially in those that are somewhat calcareous. It cannot endure stagnant water. It succeeds well on soils too poor for ash or elm; but depends much on the depth of the soil, its moots penetrating more deeply than those of most other trees. Noble specimens of oak trees, and some of them historically celebrated, exist in almost all parts of Britain; but are much more frequent in England than in Scotland. The former existence of great oak forests is attested by the huge trunks often found in bogs. The oak attains a height of from 50 to 100 or even 150 or 180 ft.; the trunk being 4. 6, or even 8 ft. in diameter. It sometimes grows tall and stately, but often rather exhibits great thickness of bole and magnitude of branches. It reaches its greatest magnitude in periods vary ing from 120 to 400 years, but lives to the age of 600, or even 1000. The timber is very solid, durable, peculiarly unsusceptible of the influence of moisture, and, therefore, end neatly adapted for shipbuilding. It is also employed in carpentry, mill-work, etc.—The bark abounds iu tannin; it also contains a peculiar bitter principle called quercine, and is used in medicine, chiefly in gargles, etc., on account of its astringency, sometimes also as a tonic; it is used along with gall-nuts in the manufacture of ink; but most of all for tanning (see BARK), and on this account the oak is often planted as copse-wood (see CorsE) in situations where it cannot be expected to attain to great size as it tree. The timber of copse oak is excellent fire-wood. The oak is particularly fitted for copse wood, by the readiness with which it springs again from the stools after it has been Acorns are very nourishing food for swine, and in times of scarcity have been often used for human food, as, indeed, they commonly are in some very poor countries, either alone or mixed with meal. The bitterness which makes them disagreeable is said to be in part removed by burying them for a time in the earth. The acorns of sonic trees are also much less hitter than others, and oaks of the common species occur which produce acorns as sweet as cha-,stnuts. Other varieties of the common oak are assiduously propa gated by nurserymen as curious and ornamental, particularly one with pendulous branchlets (the weeping oak), and one with branches growing up close to the stem, as in some kinds of poplar. Among the Greeks and Romans the oak was sacred to Zeus or Jupiter; and it has been connected with the religious observances of many nations, as of the ancient Celts and Germans.—The Tutu= OAK or ADRIATIC OAK (Q. cerrA), now very frequently plantedin Britain, is a large and valuable tree, very common in the s.e. of Europe, and in some parts of Asia. The timber is imported in considerable quantity into Britain for ship-building and other purposes. The leaves differ from those of the common oak in their acute lobes, and the cups of the acorns are mom/, i.e., have long,
loose, acute scales. Similar to this, in both these respects, are the AUSTRIAN OAK (e. Austri.aca), abundant near Vienna, and the SPANISH OAK (Q. Hispanica). —The CORK OAK or ConH-TnEE (Q. sober) is noticed in the article CORK; the HOLM OAK or EVER GREEN OAK (Q. ilex), another of the species found in the s. of Europe, in the article TLEx. Of the North American oaks, some are very valuable as timber trees. Perhaps the most important is the WHITE OAK or QUEBEC OAK (Q. elba), a large tree, the leaves of which have a few rounded lobes. It is found from the gulf of Mexico to Canada; and in some places forms the chief part of the forest. The timber is less compact than that of the British oak; that of young trees is very elastic.—The OvanacuP OAK (Q. krata), a majestic tree, highly esteemed for its timber, and having its acorns almost covered by their globular cup, grows chiefly in lands liable to inundation in the southern states.—The CHESTNUT-LEAVED WHITE OAK (Q. _minus) is also a much-esteemed timber tree of the southern states.—The SwamrltirnTE OAK (Q., bicolor), aylosely allied species, ;cods LIVE OAR' (if2;. • rireits); evOrgi:e6r1 with en t leathery leaves, is regarded as a tree of the first importance in the United States, from the excellence of its timber and its value for ship-building, so that efforts have been intv le by the government to protect it and to promote the planting of its acorns. Yet it is not a very large tree, being seldom more than 4.5 ft. in height, with a trunk of 2 ft. in diameter. It grows on the coasts of the gulf of Mexico, and as far north as Virginia. It once abounded on the Sea islands, now so celebrated. for their cotton.—The OAK (Q. rutra), a large tree with sinuated and lobed lobes toothed and bristle pointed, yields great part of the red oak staves exported from Canada and the n. of the United States to the West Indies; but red oak stares are also produced in the middle and southern states by the SCARLET OAK (Q. coccinea), a very shnilio species, by the BLACK OAK or QUERCITRON OAK (Q. tinctoria), another species with the lobes of the leaves bristle-pointed, better-known for the dye-stuff which its bark yields (see QUER: erntox). and by the willow oak (Q. phellos), a large tree with lanceolate leaves and a willow-like aspect. The timber of all these species is of very inferior quality. These arc the American oaks of greatest economical and commercial importance, but there are numerous other species, some of them trees, some mere shrubs, of which some grow on poor soils, and cover them in compact masses; resembling in this a single European species (Q. riminalis), a native of the Vosges, 6 to 8 ft. high, with slender, tough branches, which makes excellent hedges.—The BLACK JACK (Q. nigra) is an American oak, •hiedy notable for the abundance in which it grows on some of the poorest soils. It is a small tree; and its timber of little value. The bark is black.—Some of the Nepaulese oaks are large and valuable trees, as are some of those of China and Japan, of Java, of :Mexico, etc. The oaks of Java and the other Indian islands have generally the leaves quite entire.—The bark of most of the species of oak is capable of being used for tanning, and is used in different countries. The cups and acorns of the VALONIA OAK (Q. o3Aops) are exported from the Morea and other parts of the Levant in great quantities for this purpose, under the name of valonia. See LEATHER. The tree re ;embles the Turkey oak, and has very large hemispherical mossy cups. The cups are said to contain more tannin than any other vegetable substance.—Galls (q.v) or gall-nuts are in great part obtained from the oak, therefore called the GALL- oak (Q. Infeetoria), a scrubby bush, a native of Asia Minor, with bluntly serrated, ovate-oblong leaves.—The KEIVIES OAK (Q. coccifera), on the leaves of which the kermes (q.v.) insect is found, is a low bush, with evergreen spinous leaves, much resembling a holly, a native of the s.e. of Europe.—Of oaks with sweet and edible acorns, may be mentioned the BA: LOTE OAK (Q. ballota or gramuntia), an evergreen with round spiny-toothed Leaves, a native of the u. of Africa, the acorns of which arc regularly brought to market in Algeria and in Spain, and are long and cylindrical; the Italian oak (Q. cesculus), closely allied to the common oak; and the DWARF CnEsTxum OAK (Q. chinquapin or prinoides) of North America, a small shrubby species, which has been specially recom mended to cultivation on this account. Other North American species, and some of the Himalayan species, also produce edible acorns. From the acorns of sonic species, oil is made in considerable quantity in different parts of the world, and is used in cookery.— The leaves of the manna oak (Q. mannyera)—a native of the mountains of Kurdistan, having oblong, blunt-lobed leaves—secrete in hot weather a kind of manna, a sweet mucilaginous substance, which is made into sweetmeats, and very highly esteemed.
The name oak is sometimes popularly applied to timber trees of very differentgenera. Thus, AFRICAN OAK is another name of African teak. See TEAK. Some of the species of casuarina (q.v.) are called oak in Australia. The STONE OAK (lith0Carp us Jarenensis) of Java, so named from the extreme hardness of its timber, is a tree of the same family with the true oaks.