18G ON THE DECREASE OF THE OAK IN BRITAIN. 



sands from the underwood (and which supply the Mosses beneath with the 



constant moisture so necessary to their existence — 



" Within whose tufts 

 Around the root the bedded acorns sleep 

 Till Zephyr fans the glowing blush of spring,")* 



furnish scenes which leave no room to regret the change which intervenes between 

 one summer and another. 



It is in the delight and satisfaction with which scenes like these are contem- 

 plated, that Man can best appreciate those noble faculties with which he is 

 endowed. It was in scenes like these 



— " The Theban Eagle plumed 

 His daring pinions on Cithaeron's brow : 

 In scenes like these Salvator grouped his iron 

 And gaunt banditti near the foaming crash 

 Of cataracts, that o'er the sombre rock 

 Had cast the headless and uprooted trunk."* 



And it is, moreover, in scenes like these that we 



" Revere the fostering Lord of Nature, who 



In love created all the harmonic maze 



Of worlds, reflection of the eternal mind."* 



But in the destruction of the Oak and increase of the Larch is involved the 

 destruction of these scenes, and, consequently, of the hallowed reflections which 

 their existence produced in the mind. For the Larch and the Fir tribe generally 

 forbid the existence of vegetable life — even their own offspring are forbid to put 

 forth their tender shoots beneath the baneful influence of the parent stem.t 



The inhabitants of Worcestershire and Herefordshire especially, can appreciate 

 the value of the Oak ; they possess the finest specimens now existing of that tree, 

 and they have to lament the loss of thousands which in the spring of every year 

 are cut down and the bark carried to the tan-pit. And here, again, is a fertile 

 source of dissertation on the consequences, a failure in the supply of bark — a 

 failure which must be the natural result of such an extensive annual destruction. 

 But the consequences of the decrease of the Oak in a commercial point of view 

 have been often alluded to, though, seemingly, with but little effect. 



Seeing, then, the value of the Oak to the naturalist — seeing the decrease which 



* Tighe's Plants. 

 f " Those who 'are familiar with Pine forests, or Pine plantations, must be aware, that the 

 seeds of the cones never germinate under the thick shade of the trees, and grow up so as to form 

 an underwood in the forest. Cones in abundance are produced every season, but they contribute 

 chiefly to the food of the animal inhabitants, and it is only where a blank occurs, from the decay 

 or the casual destruction of a tree, that young plants rise to fill it up."— Mudie. 



