179t 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. FART HI, 





remarkably the case with the celebratcil oak at Lord Cowper's [shown m fig. 

 1480. in p. 1741.]. This tree, above a century ago, was well known as the 

 Great Oak at Pan- ^,-,, ^ 1636 



shanger. There is 

 also a beautiful tree 

 {fg. 163G.), of the 

 same description, at 

 Lord Darnley's seat 

 at Cobham, which, 

 being protected from 

 the depredations of 

 cattle, enjoys the 

 most perfect free- 

 dom of growth, ex- 

 tending its latitude 

 of boughs in every 

 direction, and droop- 

 ing its clustered fo- 

 liage to the ver} 

 ground." {Strutt in 

 Mag. Kat. Hist., vol. 

 i. p. 42.) 



The Sprat/ of the Oak has been described and illustrated by Gilpin, with his 

 usual felicity. " In the spray of trees," he remarks, " nature seems to observe 

 one simple principle ; which is, that the mode of growth in the spray corre- 

 sponds exactly with that of the larger branches, of which, indeed, the spray is 

 the origin. Thus, the oak divides his boughs from the 

 stem more horizontallv than most other deciduous trees. 

 1 637 The spray makes exactly, in minia- 



ture, the same appearance. It 

 breaks out in right angles, or in 

 angles that are nearly so, forming 

 its shoots commonly in short hues 

 [see/;?.?. 1637. and 1 638., from Gil- 

 pin ; and Jig. 1(J39., from Strutt]; 

 the second year's shoot usually 

 taking some direction contrary to 

 that of the first. Thus the ru- 

 diments are laid of that al)rupt mode of ramification, for which the oak is 



