118 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



" The oak, whoso acorns were our food before 

 That Cere's seed of mortal man was known, 

 Which tirst Triptolemene taught to be sown." 



During the war in the Peninsula, both the natives and the French fed on tlic acorns 

 found in the woods. 



The antiquity of oak forests is attested by the numerous trees which have been 

 dug out of bogs, or raised up from beds of rivers, after having lain there apparently 

 for centuries. Fossil oaks, which ai-e abundant in the Isle of Portland, in the lime- 

 stone known as Portland stone, afford proof of the great antiquity of this tree. 

 An enormous oak was discovered in Hatfield Bog, in Yorkshire, the timber of which 

 was perfectly sound ; though, from some of the coins of the Emperor Vespasian 

 biing found in the bog close by, it is supposed to have lain there above a thousand 

 years. The carvings and ornaments made in Ireland from wood obtained from the 

 bogs of that country are chiefly of oak. The wood thus used is very hard and black. 



The ancient legends and superstitions regarding the oak are very remarkable. 

 The oaks in the sacred forest of Dodona are mentioned by Herodotus, Avho relates 

 t'le traditions he heard respecting them from the priests of Egypt. All the trees in 

 the grove, he says, were endowed with the gift of prophecy ; and the sacred oaks not 

 only spoke and delivered oracles wliile in a living state, but when some of them were 

 cut down to build the ship Argo, the beams and masts of that ship often spoke, and 

 Avarned the Argonauts of their danger. The oracle of Dodona was not only the most 

 celebrated, but the richest in Greece, from the offerings of those who came to enquire 

 into futurity. The prophecies were first delivered by doves, which were always kept 

 in the temple, but afterwards the answers were given by the priestesses ; or, according 

 to Homer and others, by the oaks themselves — hollow trees no doubt being chosen, 

 in which a priest might be concealed. The oracular power of the Dodonian oaks is 

 oi'ten alluded to, not only by the Greek and Latin poets, but by those of modern 

 times. Cowper says, addressing the Yardley Oak, — 



*' Oh ! could' st thou speak. 

 As in Dodona once thy kindred trees. 

 Oracular, I would not curious ask 

 The future, best unknown ; but at thy mouth 

 Inquisitive, the less ambiguous past. 

 By thee I might correct, erroneous oft, 

 The clock of histoiy ; facts and events 

 Timing more punctual, unrecorded facts 

 Recovering ; and misstated, setting right." 



The oak was considered by the ancients as the emblem of hospitality ; because, 

 when Jupiter and Mercury were travelling in disguise, and arrived at the cottage of 

 Philemon, who was afterwards changed into an oak tree, they were treated with the 

 greatest kindness. Philemon was a poor old man, living with his wife Baucis in 

 Phrygia, in a miserable cottage, which Jupiter, to reward his hospitality, changed 

 into a magnificent temple, of which he made the old couple priest and priestess, 

 granting them the only request they made to him, viz. that they might die together. 

 Accordingly, when both had grown so old as to wish for death, Jupiter turned Baucis 

 into a lime-tree, and Philemon into an oak ; the two trees entwining their branches, 

 and shading for more than a century the magnificent portal of the Phrygian temple. 

 The civic crown of the Romans was made of oak-leaves, and was o-ivcn for eminent 



