40 



The Oak Tree^ considered 



European trees may, by the painter, be divided into four 

 classes: the round-topped, as the oak, chestnut, elm, willow, 

 ash, beech, &c. ; the spiry- topped, as the different species of 

 the fir tribe ; the shaggy-topped, comprehending those of the 

 pine ; and the slender-formed, as the Lombardy poplar and 

 the cypress. In the first of these classes, foremost in dignity 

 and grandeur, the oak stands pre-eminent, and like the lion 

 among beasts, is the undoubted lord of the forest. Beauty, 

 united with strength, characterises all its parts. The leaves, 

 elegant in their outline, are strongly ribbed, and firmly at- 

 tached to the spray, which, although slim and excursive, is 

 yet bold and determined in its angles, whilst the abrupt and 

 tortuous irregularity of its massive branches, admirably con- 

 trasts with the general richness and density of its clustered 

 foliage. Even as a sapling, in its slender gracefulness, it ex- 

 hibits sufficient firmness and indications of vigour, to predi- 

 cate the future monarch of the wood ; a state, indeed, which 

 it is slow to assume, but 

 which \ireX.2\nsperscecula 

 longa ; and when, at 

 length, it is brought to 

 acknowledge the influ- 

 ence of time, and becomes 

 " bald with dry anti- 

 quity," no other produc- 

 tion of the forest can be 

 admitted as its rival in 

 majestic and venerable decay. The general form of the oak 

 is expansive, luxuriant, and spreading. Its character, both 

 with respect to its whole, and to its larger masses of 

 foliage, is best expressed by the pencil in bold and roundish 

 lines, whether as single trees (/g. 13.), as groups {Jg. 14.), or 

 as forming the line of a distant forest {figs. 15, 16.): although 



when growing more closely together, they assume a loftier 

 and less spreading appearance than the more solitary tree, 

 such as Mason has so beautifully described in his Caractactis, — 

 " Behold yon oak, 



How stern he frowns, and, with his broad brown arms. 



Chills the pale plain beneath him." 



