184 AMENTACE^ 



believed to have signified the Plane-tree, so aljuudant in Palestine and the 

 other lands of Scripture. 



8. British Oak (Qaercus). 



Common Oak (Q. rohnr). — Leaves oblong, usually on short stalks, 

 deeply cut at the edges with l)lunt lobes ; acorns generally single, in twos or 

 threes ; fruit-stalks long, and of reddish green, but in intermediate varieties 

 short or almost wanting ; buds small and not prominent ; branches tortuous 

 and spreading. A form of Oak sometimes regarded as distinct, but now very 

 generally considered as a variety, is termed either the Bay, Chestnut, Bed, 

 or Durmast Oak. Its acorns usually grow in clusters on very short stalks. 

 The leaves are glossy and shining, In'oader, rounder, and less deeply cut than 

 those of the Common Oak ; their footstalks very long and of a yellowish- 

 green colour- the buds large and prominent; the branches more upright. 

 We have often thought, as we looked upon the Oak, that neither botanist 

 nor poet has ever better described it than does Shakspere, who calls it — 



"The unwedgeable and gnarled oak." 



The Oak puts forth its foliage of tender green, sometimes tinged with 

 crimson, in April and May ; at which season the long, loose pendulous green 

 catkins are also to be seen. In winter the leaves have a reddish-brown tint, 

 though the younger Oaks wear, sometimes even in the dreariest season, a 

 branch of golden foliage. Far away in the woodlands, too, we may see 

 them contrasting with the other trees, by the large mass of withered leaves 

 which the rough winds yet leave to them. The leaves of the Oak grow in 

 tufts, and are unlike in form to those of any other native tree. It often puts 

 forth shoots in autumn ; and instances are on record of a yet later growth of 

 new leaves. 



As we gaze on its massive base and ponderous trunk, or its knotty, wide- 

 spread branches, covered with their umbrageous leafage, we instinctively 

 recognise it as the monarch of the vegetable kingdom. We feel, too, that it 

 is a peculiarly British tree; and the thought is awakened of the "walls of 

 Old England," and the "hearts of oak" that have beaten bravely within 

 them. Many a fact of English history is associated with the tree. The 

 mind reverts to the Druids, who took their name from the Celtic denv (Oak), 

 and who wore its wreaths of leaves around their brow ; to the round oak- 

 table of Prince Arthur ; to the arrow of Walter Tyrrel, which struck against 

 its stout trunk, on its way to the heart of the Second William ; to the king 

 who took shelter beneath its boughs ; or to the brave William Wallace, who 

 slept nightly in the hollow of the Oak of Torwood. Parliaments have held 

 council beneath its shadow ; and often has a sight of the tree served to 

 recall the old idea of the Greeks, that it was an emblem of hospitality ; or 

 the fancy of the Arcadians, that it was the first-created of trees. Its old 

 name, too, the " Father of ships," is felt to be an appropriate one. Its 

 timbers have borne on the ocean the brave and the free, have brought us 

 the wealth of other climes, have carried liberty to the captive, and taken the 

 blessino-s of Gospel light to those who sat in darkness. The child frolics 

 beneath its shadow, or the weary man buries his dead under it, and knows 



