The _Gray Oak_, _Water Oak_, _Bear Oak_, _Upland_, _Willow Oak_, and _Bartram Oak_ are interesting varieties. The _Laurel Oak_ is a stranger north of Philadelphia, and is rare in the more southern states. It is most abundant in the open savannas of Illinois. Rising to the height of forty or fifty feet, clad in a smooth bark, and for three fourths of its height laden with branches, it presents an uncouth appearance when bared by the winter blasts, but in the summer with its thick tufted foliage is really beautiful. The _Black Oak_ is found throughout the country, with the exception of the northern part of New England. It is one of the loftiest of the American forest trees, rising to the height of eighty or ninety feet, with a diameter of four or five feet. The wood is reddish and coarse-grained, with empty pores, but is esteemed for strength and durability. It furnishes excellent fuel, and the bark is largely used for tanning. Other varieties of the oak are numerous. _Walnut._――The _Black Walnut_ is met with in large numbers in the forests in the vicinity of Philadelphia, and with the exception of the lower parts of the southern states, where the soil is too sandy, or too wet as in the swamps, it is met with to the banks of the Mississippi throughout an extent of two thousand miles. East of the Alleghanies in Virginia, and in the upper parts of the Carolinas and Georgia, it is chiefly confined to the valleys where the soil is deep and fertile, and which are watered by creeks and rivers. On the banks of the Ohio and on the islands of this beautiful river, the black walnut attains the elevation of sixty or seventy feet, with a diameter of three to seven feet. Its powerful vegetation clearly points out this, as one of the largest trees of America. When it stands insulated, its branches, extending themselves horizontally to a great distance, spread into a spacious head, which gives it a very majestic appearance. The bark is thick, blackish, and on old trees deeply furrowed. The leaves when bruised emit a strong aromatic odor.