( 30 ) 



language, even into the infernal regions. No 

 tree refifts the blaft fo fteadily. We feldom 

 fee the oak, like other trees, take a twitted 

 form from the winds. Media ipfa ingentem 

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

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

 of the grand pifturefque beauties of every tree. 

 The oak, no doubt, like other trees, {brinks 

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

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

 attacks the ftrongeft conflitutions. It a&s by 

 injuring the early bud, which deftroys the 

 fpray ; and of courfe, the branch. 



A fecond charafteriftic of the oak, of which 

 Virgil takes notice, is the Jloutnefs of it's limbs - y 

 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 

 carry with them a great mare of the fubftance 

 of the ftem. You often fcarcely know, which 

 is ftem, and which is branch j and towards the 

 top, the ftem is entirely loft in the branches. 

 This gives particular property to the epithet 

 fortes in characterizing the branches of the 

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



peculiar 



