The Oak.
Quercus.
A noble and stately tree, native of our country, and no where growing to so great perfection. It is very tall, and though irregular in the disposition of its branches, that very irregularity has its beauty; the trunk is very thick; the branches are also thick, and often crooked: the bark is brown and rough: the leaves are large, oblong, broad, and deeply cut in at the edges, and they are of a shining green. The flowers are inconsiderable. The fruit is the acorn, well known. Galls are produced upon the oak, not as fruit, but from the wounds made by an insect.
The bark of the oak is a very powerful astringent; it stops purgings, and overflowings of the menses, given in powder; a decoction of it is excellent for the falling down of the uvula, or as it is called the falling down of the palate of the mouth. Whenever a very powerful astringent is required, oak bark demands the preference over every thing: if it were brought from the East Indies, it would be held inestimable.
