90 TREES. 



easily made out. To trace them is at once an agree- 

 able and instructive occupation for half an hour, when 

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

 does it end in the simple discrimination of two differ- 

 ent things ; for the wave-leaved oak has the reputa- 

 tion of being a more excellent tree than the other, 

 while the flat-leaved is considered better adapted to 

 excite ideas of the picturesque. A glorious spectacle 

 is that of the oak in the month of April, when its am- 

 ber-tinted buds stud the tree like so many jewels. 

 They do not open hurriedly, like those of the syca- 

 more or the horse-chestnut. From first to last, the 

 life of the oak seems characterized by placidity. It 

 lives so long that it can afford to be leisurely in all its 

 movements, and at every season alike expresses dig- 

 nity and calmness. In a little while, when the young 

 leaves are half-expanded, come the flowers, though 

 not such flowers as we use for bouquets. Nature has 

 other ways of fashioning flowers than after the model 

 of the rose or lily. To note them is one of the great 

 rewards and charms of Botany, which does not 

 mean calling plants by Latin names, but exploring the 

 wonderful nature of their various parts, an4 how ex- 

 quisitely they are fitted for their several uses and des- 

 tinies, and then comparing them with other forms of 

 leaves and flowers, 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 



