160 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



of Allouville and its neighborhood, who regarded the 

 old oak with sacred fondness, turned out in arms an:! 

 protected it against the Vandals. 



Let us hope that many generations yet will enjoy 

 its broad and pleasant shade. 



The aspect of this tree excites a deeper interest 

 perhaps than that of many structures left us by races 

 existing no more. There seems to be something pe- 

 culiarly eloquent in this great tree, that year :if'iT \ (Mi- 

 renews its youth, though it has seen as many graves 

 close and open again as the cold and silent stones of 

 ancient temples; and we know of no history that has 

 touched us more deeply than the humble and pious 

 traditions of kings and warriors who have rested 

 under its shade, of troubadours who have sung its 

 praise, and of the tempests that have raged against it 

 without ever impairing its beauty. 



One day on a pleasure tour returning from Caude- 

 bec to Yvetot, we went out of our way to visit this 

 famous oak. What struck us particularly about it 

 was to find that little else was left of the tree but the 

 bark. It is entirely hollow from the root to the top, 

 and the interior is lined with wood, carefully plastered 

 and wainscoted, like a monk's cell or an oratory, and 

 yet the tree is still as green as those of the forest near 

 by, and bears every year abundant crops of acorns. 



The old chapel oak of Allouville is a monument 

 of comparatively modest pretensions as to antiquity 

 compared with the oak of Montravaii, which is not less 

 than 1,500 and perhaps 2,000 years old. This oak, 

 which stands in the court-yard of the farm of Montra- 



