THE OAK 5 



the leaves of which remain downy, and stay longer 

 on the tree, hanging in melancholy russet late into 

 the spring. Its timber is of inferior quality, and 

 resembles Chestnut wood in appearance and, it is 

 said, in being distasteful to spielers. Parts of the 

 roof of Westminster Abbey are said to be of this 

 cobweb-proof material. 



In a growing Oak notice will be taken of the 

 outward spreading of the stem at its base; of the 

 rugged bark ; of the curiously tortuous branchlets, 

 twisting in zigzag fashion almost rectangularly 

 towards every point of the compass, owing to the 

 central shoots becoming abortive ; and of the 

 uniquely waving outline of the yellowish-green 

 leaves. The leaves generally make their first 

 appearance in the south of England towards the 

 end of April, when the young shoots blush with 

 a ruddiness almost autumnal ; and, if at all 

 sheltered from the glare of July and August, a 

 constant succession of the pink and bronze-tinted 

 glories of the young leafage is kept up in our 

 moist summers till late in autumn, when the first 

 formed leaves are beginning to change. Then the 

 green loses its olive -yellow tints for clear gold, 

 mottled with clear grass green, fading to the sober 

 pallid russet which lasts through the winter. This 

 indescribable hue has none of the coppery rich- 

 ness of the dead leaves of Beech., nor the warm 

 umber of the Horse-chestnut : it is the grey ghost 

 of a brown that has been. 



The catkins appear shortly after the leaves : the 

 male ones pendulous, the female erect. The 



