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language, even into the infernal regions. No 

 tree refifts the blaft fo fteadily. We feldom 

 fee the oak, like other trees, take a twifted 

 form from the winds. Media ipfa ingentem 

 fujlinet umbram : that is, I apprehend, it pre- 

 ferves it's balance j which we have feen is one 

 of the grand picturefque beauties of every tree. 

 The oak, no doubt, like other trees, fhrinks, 

 from the fea-air. But this indicates no weak- 

 nefs* The fea-air, like a peftilential difeafe, 

 attacks the ftrongeft conftitutions. It acts by 

 injuring the early bud, which deftroys the 

 fpray ; and of courfe, the branch. 



A fecond characteriftic of the oak, of which 

 Virgil takes notice, is the ftoutnefs of it's limbs ; 

 it's fortes ramos. We know no tree, except 

 perhaps the cedar of Lebanon, fo remarkable 

 in this refpect. The limbs of moft trees fpring 

 from the trunk. In the oak they may be 

 rather faid to divide from it ; for they generally 

 cany with them a great mare of the fubftance 

 of the flem. You often fcarcely know, which 

 is ftem, and which is branch ; and towards the 

 top, the flem is entirely loft in the branches. 

 This gives particular propriety to the epithet 

 fortes in characterizing the branches of the 

 oak j and hence it's finewy elbows are of fuch 



peculiar 



