Chap. 3.] THE ACORN OAK. - 34 1 



attain their growth : undermined by the waves or uprooted by 

 the blasts, with their entwining roots they carry vast forests 

 along with them, and, thus balanced, stand upright as they float 

 along, while they spread afar their huge branches like the 

 rigging of so many ships. Many is the time that these trees 

 have struck our fleets with alarm, when the waves have driven 

 them, almost purposely it would seem, against their prows as 

 they stood at anchor in the night; and the men, destitute of 

 all remedy and resource, have had to engage in a naval com- 

 bat with a forest of trees ! 



(2.) In the same northern regions, too, is the Hercynian 11 

 Forest, whose gigantic oaks, 12 uninjured by the lapse of ages, 

 and contemporary with the creation of the world, by their near 

 approach to immortality surpass all other marvels known. Not 

 to speak of other matters that would surpass all belief, it is a 

 well-known fact that their roots, 13 as they meet together, up- 

 heave vast hills ; or, if the earth happens not to accumulate 

 with them, rise aloft to the very branches even, and, as they 

 contend for the mastery, form arcades, like so many portals 

 thrown open, and large enough to admit of the passage of a 

 squadron of horse. 



(3.) All these trees, in general, belong to the glandiferous 

 class, 14 and have ever been held in the highest honour by the 

 Eoman people. 



CHAP. 3. (4.) THE ACORN OAK. THE CIVIC CROWN". 



It is with the leaves of this class of trees that our civic 

 crown is made, the most glorious reward that can be bestowed 

 on military valour, and, for this long time past, the emblem of 

 the imperial 15 clemency ; since the time, in fact, when, after 



» See B. iv. c. 28, and the Note, Vol. i. p. 348. The village of Her- 

 cingen, near "Waldsee, is supposed to retain the ancient name. 



12 " Robora." It will be seen in this Book that the robur has not been 

 identified, any more than the quercus. 



13 Fee treats this story as utterly fabulous. The branches of the Ficus 

 Indica grow downwards, and so form arcades certainly ; but such is not the 

 case with any European tree. 



14 Not only oaks, but a variety of other trees, were included under this 

 name by the ancients; the "glans" embracing not only the acorn, but 

 the mast of the beech, and the hard fruits of other trees. 



15 He alludes to the crown of oak-leaves, which was suspended on the 

 gates before the palace of the emperors. A civic crown had been voted by 

 the senate to Julius Caesar, on the ground of having saved his country. 



