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the deer, that with sharply pointed hoof dig in the 

 moist ground a resting-place for the acorns, and, trampling 

 restlessly around, dibble them securely in for their 

 winter's sleep. The empty cups, their mission so far 

 accomplished, then become, if we may believe Shakespeare, 

 who knew a good deal about most things, the homes of 

 the fairies. 



Dioscorides ^ and other venerable authors attributed 

 great healing virtues to acorns. Despite the high position 

 they once held in ancient therapeutics, they have long since 

 lost their reputation in matters medicinal. On looking 

 again at this last sentence, it struck us as being a little 

 vague, as applying equally to either the acorns or the 

 venerable authors ; and our first thought was to erase it 

 and try again, but as the statement would indeed apply 

 with equal force to either we retain it proudly as a 

 model of compression. Acorns, long after their medical 

 value was set at nought, were tolerated by mankind 

 under stern necessity as an article of diet, but such food 

 is too bitter and austere to be used continuously, and 

 we may well regard Cowley's rhapsody on some unknown 

 heroic race as having but slight relation to the facts. 

 He declares that — 



Heroes on earth once lived, men good and great, 

 Acorns their food ; thus fed they flourished 

 And equalled in their age the long-lived oak. 



' Dioscorides was a physician, and approached the study of plants from 

 the medical point of view. He lived in the time of Nero. He, Hippocrates, 

 and Theophrastus are the great authorities for all Greek plant-names 

 and plant-uses up to a little beyond the time of the commencement of the 

 Christian era. 



