THE OAK. 15 



kind. In their tender and elegant sympathies they make no distinction 

 between the overthrown tree and the tree that stands in its pride. One 

 of their most exquisite specialities is that, like ivy and the faithful wall- 

 flower, they are companions alike of life and death, oftentimes adorn- 

 ing the one with bright hues foreign to its nature, and never failing to 

 render the other beautiful. In the wild and desolate region called 

 Dartmoor, strangely situated in a county that otherwise is the "garden 

 of England," there is a truly wonderful spectacle of this nature. On 

 the left bank of the river, about a mile above Two Bridges, the hillside 

 is heaped with blocks of granite, in the spaces between which are nearly 

 five hundred trees of the wavy-leaved oak, but singularly distorted. 

 They are gnarled, knotted, and twisted, seldom more than ten to four- 

 teen feet in height, and with a circumference not exceeding five feet, 

 and generally much less. The belt is ragged and interrupted, and 

 extends for the distance of about half-a-mile. Such a group of trees 

 would not be very remarkable in itself: what renders the scene so 

 extraordinary is that the branches, except at the extremities, and this 

 not always, are completely matted over with a moss, called by botanists 

 Anomodon curtipendulum. In most cases the green covering is from 

 ten to twelve inches in thickness, though the branch that supports it is 

 not of greater diameter than a child's wrist. The weight is so con- 

 siderable as to bend the branches downwards, just as we may see the 

 branches of likes and other supple trees weighed down at Christmas 

 by the gentle deposit on them of abundant snow ; and all over the 

 surface of this beautiful coating of vegetable velvet may be discovered, 

 in their season, the lovely little seed-capsules, by the produce of which 

 the plant is multiplied. The name given to this singular spot, which 

 seems as if it had been touched by the wand of some botanical enchanter, 

 is Wistman's Wood. It is easy of access, and should be visited by every 

 one who may happen to pass through that part of Devonshire. 



Every old wood and forest shows us oaks bearing ferns. The latter 

 are chiefly of the kind called polypody, or the "many-footed," on 

 account of the numerous lateral leaflets giving the idea of feet, as in a 

 centipede. On those grand old rugged bosses which the oak is so apt 

 to form, some ten or twelve feet above our heads, there may often be 

 seen a tuft of this elegant plant, perched completely out of reach, 

 and decked with those gay spangles of bright gold which render the 

 fern in question so easy of recognition, and attract the eye of the most 

 incurious. All lovers of nature have been attracted in the first instance 

 to the specialities, by some particular plant or flower, which, holding 



