114 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in the Hold , and unrivalled in commerce and the arts. It was held sacred 

 alike by the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Romans, and the ancient Britons 

 and Gauls." 



"The civic crown, given in the palmy days of Rome to the most celebrated 

 men, was always composed of oak leaves." 



" The Arcadians, among the Greeks, believed the oak was the first created 

 of trees." "The oak groves of Dodona in Epirus, formed the most cele- 

 brated and most ancient oracle on record." 



" There is scarcely a Greek or Latin poet, or prose author, who does not 

 make some allusion to this tree." 



"The Yule log was always of oak; and, as the ancient Britons believed that 

 it was essential for their hearth fires to bo renewed every year from the sacred 

 fire of the Druids." 



Emerson says, " as an ornament to tho landscape, or as a single object, no 

 other tree is to be compared with it, in every period of its growth, for pictur- 

 esqueness, majesty, and inexhaustible variety of beauty. When standing alone, 

 alone, it throws out its mighty arms with an air of force and grandeur, which 

 have made it everywhere to be considered the fittest emblem of strength and 

 power of resistance. Commonly, the oak braves the storm to the last, without 

 yielding, better than any other tree. The limbs go out at a great angle, and 

 stretch horizontally to a vast distance. They do not always go straight out, 

 but crook and bend to right and left, upwards and downwards, abruptly or 

 with a gentle sweep. 



" The white oak is beautiful in every state of its growth ; at first, light, slender, 

 delicate and waving; at last, broad, massive, and grand, but always graceful. 

 Let everyone, who has an opportunity, plant a white oak." Loudon says : 

 "The entire tree or shrub, in the case of every species of oak, may be consid- 

 ered as highly ornamental. In autumn the American oaks excel all other 

 oaks in beauty." 



The oak may be called a round topped tree. "When at length it is brought 

 to acknowledge the influence of time and becomes ' bold with dry antiquity,' 

 no other production of the forest can be admitted as its rival in majestic and 

 venerable decay." 



Thomas Meehan says: "All oaks are amongst the most useful trees in land- 

 scape gardening. Singly, in the landscape, I know of no other tree that can 

 be compared with the white oak. I would desire to see no better emulation in 

 gardening than in a desire to possess the best white oak. In the fall of the 

 year the scarlet oak bears off tho palm." 



Downing says : " There are no grander or more superb trees than our Ameri- 

 can oaks. We are fully disposed to concede it the first rank among the deni- 

 zens of the forest. As an ornamental object we consider the oak the most 

 varied in expression, the most beautiful, grand, majestic and picturesque of all 

 deciduous trees. It is one of the grandest and most picturesque objects as a 

 single tree upon a lawn, and is equally unrivaled for groups and masses." 



I have had a purpose in my references to the oaks of the old world, to show 

 how universally they were objects of respect and admiration. This spirit is 

 truly worthy of our imitation. The masses of American people lack reverence 

 and are especially deficient in their respect for fine trees. 



In a few towns of Germany, Downing says, no bachelor can take a wife till 

 he has planted a tree. 



A part of our mission henceforth, since we have assumed the broad title of 



