THE OAK. 



13 



wavy-leaved. These are distinctions very easily 

 made out. To trace them is at once an agreeable 

 and instructive occupation for half an hour, when 

 we go into the country for a day's enjoyment. Nor 



OAK LEAVES. 



does it end in the simple discrimination of two 

 different things ; for the wavy-leaved oak has the 

 reputation of being a more excellent tree than the 

 other, while the flat-leaved is considered better 

 adapted to excite ideas of the picturesque. It may 

 be added, that both in Britain and upon the Con- 

 tinent, the wavy -leaved oak, Quercus pedunculata, 

 is generally found upon better soil than the sessili- 

 flora, circumstances which may have something to 

 do with its higher reputation for quality. In France 

 the chene-a-grappes, as the former is there called, 



