as an Element of Landscape. 243 



must now proceed to exhibit the more minute peculiari- 

 ties and distinctions of the oak, the character of its spray, the 

 ramification of its branches, and the peculiar and individual 

 appearance of its foliage. With respect to the first of these 

 heads, I cannot do better than quote the remarks of Gilpin. 

 " In the spray of trees," he observes, " nature seems to ob- 

 serve one simple principle ; which is, that the mode of growth 

 in the spray corresponds exactly with that of the larger branches, 

 of which, indeed, the spray is the origin. Thus the oak di- 

 vides his boughs from the stem more horizontally than most 

 other deciduous trees. The spray makes exactly in miniature 

 the same appearance. It breaks out in right angles, or in 

 angles that are nearly so ; forming its shoots commonly in 

 short lines: the second year's shoot usually taking some 

 direction contrary to that of the first. Thus the rudiments 

 are laid of that abrupt mode of ramification, for which the 

 oak is remarkable. When two shoots spring from the same 

 knot, they are commonly of unequal length; and one with 

 large strides generally takes the lead. Very often, also, three 

 shoots, and sometimes four, spring from the same knot. Hence 

 the spray of the oak becomes thick, close, and interwoven ; so 

 that, at a little distance, it has a full rich appearance, and 

 more of the picturesque roughness than we observe in the spray 

 of any other tree. The spray of the oak also generally springs 

 in such directions as give its branches that horizontal appear- 

 ance which they generally assume." 



In the above illustration (j^g, 99.) it will be seen that the 

 spray seldom shoots from the lower or underside of the 

 branches, which, added to the roughness and strength of their 

 component parts, enables the branches to stretch out and 

 maintain their horizontal position, not unfrequently even to 



