266 CONIFEB.3E. 



Mr. Johns speaks of an Oak called the " Gospel Oak," at Stone- 

 leigh; the title has doubtless the same origin as that of the 

 " Gospel Field," near Ripon. On a certain day in the year the 

 clergy and choir of the church used to walk the boundaries of 

 the parish, stopping to read parts of the service at different 

 points, and chanting as they went along ; the field where they 

 paused to read the Gospel is still called the " Gospel Field." 

 The custom of dressing the houses with Oak on the 29th of 

 May, in commemoration of the king's concealment in the tree 

 and his restoration to the throne, is familiar to us all. Such 

 associations, together with our reliance on our "wooden walls," 

 and the great beauty of the noble tree, make the Oak a general 

 favourite, and we warmly echo Tennyson's exclamation : 



" Oh ! flourish, hidden deep in Fern, 

 Old Oak, I love thee well." 



The insect tribes love it as much as we ; one pierces the bark 

 and makes what we call " Oak Apples ;" another covers the 

 under part of the leaf with green Currant-like galls ; a third 

 performs a similar service on the little flower-stalks ; and a 

 fourth ornaments the back of the leaf with Oak spangles, in 

 each of which a young insect is concealed. The Oak galls of 

 commerce, which form an important ingredient in ink and in 

 dyes, are from a species of Oak indigenous in Asia Minor 

 and the Levant. Cork is the bark of another species of Oak. 

 The green caterpillar feeds on the leaves, the cockchafer and 

 stag-beetle live among the branches, and the purple emperor 

 butterfly considers the Oak his home. 



The CONIFER order comes next, and is the last in the great 

 Two-lobed class. It contains three British families the 

 Pines, the Yews, and the Junipers ; the Cedars and Cypresses 

 belong to this tribe. The stamens and pistils are in different 

 flowers, and the fruit is generally a cone, though sometimes a 

 berry. 



Our one British member of the Pine family is the Scotch Fir 

 (Pinus sylvestris, Plate XV., Jig. 9). In England this tree is 



