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Pliny's authority *, may be decifive in favom 

 of its being the oak. But were it not fo, Vir- 

 gil's defcription is fo ftrongly marked with the 

 character of the oak, that it feems to put the 

 matter out of difpute; and I introduce the 

 quotation, merely to bring together, in few 

 words, the moft obvious qualities of this moft 

 noble plant, in one point of view. 

 -/The firft characteriftic, which Virgil men- 

 tions, is it's jirmnefsy or the power and 

 ftrength, with which it takes hold of the 

 ground; driving its tap-root, in the poet's 



* Pliny, fpeaking of the different kinds of trees, which were 

 dedicated to different deities, tells us, Jovi efculus, Appoloni 

 laurus, &c. Lib. xii. c. i. Now we know that the oak was 

 Jupiter's tree. On this point I need only quote Phaedrus. 



Olim quas vellent effe in tutela fua 



Divi legerunt arbores ; quercus Jovi, 



Et myrtus Veneri placuit 



Pliny alfo in another place, Lib. xvi. c. 6. plainly diftinguifliea 

 between ihefagus t and the efculus. " Fagi glans triangula cute 

 includitur. Folium tenue, populo fimile, celerrime flavefcens, 

 &c. Glandem, quae proprie intelligitur, ferunt robur, quercus, 

 efculus. Continetur hifpido calyce. Folia, finuofa lateribus ; 

 nee, cum cadunt, flavefcentia, ut fagi. Glans optima in quercu, 

 et grandifiima ; mox efculo." From this quotation it is plain, 

 that Pliny confiders the efculus as a variety of the oak. 



language, 



