CHAPTER III. 



DECIDUOUS TREES. 



THE OAK. 



Qtiercus. 



"A little of thy steadfastness, 

 Rounded with leafy gracefulness, 

 Old oak give me; 



That the world's blasts may round me blow, 

 And I yield gently to and fro, 

 While my stout-hearted trunk be'.ow, 

 And firm-set roots unshaken be." 



LOWELL. 



TO convey by words alone an idea of the grand and 

 varied expressions of full-grown oaks would be a task 

 almost as difficult as to impart by description the 

 awful sense of sublimity inspired by rolling thunder. 

 In a country where the oak abounds in all the forests it might 

 seem that it would be sufficiently familiar to most persons ; 

 nevertheless, it is a fact that not more than one American out of a 



