Quercus Tinctoria, Bartram.—Black or Dyer's Oak.
[Sex. Syst. Monoecia, Polyandria.
Gen. Char.—See ante, p. 318.
Sp. Char.—The leaves are obovate or oblong, sinuate, lobed, pubescent beneath. Male flowers in slender, long, filiform aments. Cup turbinate. Acorn small, ovoid, flattened at top.
This is one of the largest forest-trees of the United States, attaining, in favourable situations, the height of ninety or one hundred feet, with spreading branches, and a rough, dark-coloured bark.
The bark when separated is thick and rugged, full of fissures, and black externally; internally, it is fibrous and of a red colour increased by drying. It breaks with a rough fracture. That obtained from the young shoots and smaller branches is smoother externally, and the inner fibres are finer. The odour is strong, and the taste is bitter and styptic, tinging the saliva yellow when chewed. The cellular integument contains a yellowish-brown colouring principle. The interior layer when separated constitutes Quercitron Bark, used for the purpose of dyeing; it is shipped to Europe.
In consequence of the colour imparted to leather, it is not as much used for tanning. As it soils the clothes an objection is urged against it in medicine.
The medical properties and uses are the same as those enumerated under Q. pedunculata.]
