8 THE OAK. 



rewards and charms of Botany, which does not mean calling plants 

 by Latin names, but exploring the wonderful nature of their various 

 parts, discovering how exquisitely they are fitted for their several uses 

 and destinies, comparing one form of leaf or flower with another, and 

 discerning step by step that nature is all one song, but coming forth in 

 countless tones, or rather like a grand Oratorio, where we never have 

 two parts exactly alike, yet everywhere repetition and reverberation to 

 the ear that knows how to listen. Flowers are not necessarily sump- 

 tuous, and fragrant, and brilliant-hued in order to be flowers. The idea 

 of a flower implies simply an elegant mechanism for the production of 

 seed, and that this be large or small is of no more importance than 

 that the heavenly teachings should be printed in one kind of type or 

 another. It is worthy of note also that the great timber-trees of the 

 north are remarkable, as a rule, for the insignificance of their flowers. 

 The short-lived vegetation of the field and garden seems decked with 

 its sweet flower-brightness in compensation. Where our hearts are to 

 be lifted up in admiration of strength and patriarchal majesty, the 

 allurement of flowers can be dispensed with. 



Those of the oak, as said above, make their appearance cotempo- 

 raneously with the young leaves, and under two different forms. First, 

 there are innumerable yellowish tufts and fringes depending from near 

 the extremities of the twigs ; among them are the tips of the rudiments of 

 the future acorns, scarcely larger than the head of a pin, and of a deep 

 red colour. The oak is thus one of the trees in which the distinction of 

 sex is strongly marked. All plants express, in some way or other, the 

 omnipresence in organic nature of masculine and feminine. ' But it is 

 not always palpable to the eye. Some philosophers consider that where 

 it is most plainly shown, we have a nearer step towards perfection of 

 structure ; and on this ground they regard the oak and its congeners as far 

 more noble in the scale of vegetable life even than apple-trees or vines. 

 Acorns would never be developed from the rudiments in question, were 

 the tasseled fringes not to cooperate, and contrariwise the tasselled 

 fringes would yield no acorns. Summer aids the development ; then 

 comes serene October, and the pretty embossed cups, round as a bubble 

 upon the water, holding them up awhile, as a young mother holds up 

 her child, cast them to the earth in kindly largess. But although the 

 acorns may sprout where they fall, none grow to be even saplings 

 beneath the shade of the parent. Only those that get carried to a little 

 distance become oaks. And this planting has been observed to be largely 

 effected through the instrumentality of squirrels. So beautifully are 



