1. In N. America, a name for several species of oak growing in swamps: for distinguishing names of the species see quots. 1817, 1845–50, 1874.
1683. Penn, Lett. to Committee, 4. Oak of divers sorts, as Red, White and Black, Spanish Chestnut and Swamp, the most durable of all.
1766. J. Bartram, Jrnl., 4 Jan., in Stork, Acc. E. Florida, 22. The east banks being sandy 8 or 10 foot perpendicular, full of live and swamp-oaks.
1817. W. Darby, Geogr. Descr. Louisiana, 355. Quercus lyrata. Swamp white oak.
1821. T. Nuttall, Trav. Arkansa, 71. Q[uercus] palustris (the swamp oak).
1845–50. Mrs. Lincoln, Lect. Bot., App. 152. Quercus prinus (swamp chestnut-oak) … bicolor (swamp white-oak).
1854. Lowell, Indian Summer Reverie, viii. The swamp-oak with his royal purple on, Glares red as blood across the sinking sun.
1874. Asa Gray’s Less. Bot., 454. Q. palustris (Swamp Spanish, or Pin Oak).
2. In Australia: a. A leguminous shrub, Viminaria denudata, also called swamp-broom.
1833. Sturt, S. Australia, I. i. 53. Light brushes of swamp-oak, cypress, box, and acacia pendula.
b. Name for various species of Casuarina: cf. SHE-OAK.
1837. J. D. Lang, New S. Wales, II. 118. The river Macquarie,… having its banks occasionally ornamented with a handsome though rather melancholy-looking tree, called the swamp-oak.
1882. Hardy, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. No. 3. 434. The rough-looking Swamp Oak or Tinian Pine (Casuarina equisetifolia), which was first introduced to Britain from the South Sea islands by Admiral Byron in 1766.
