6o TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



deeply solemn to him. So do the woods, 

 which he has but planted, nature doing the 

 rest. 



Writing of particular trees one almost in- 

 evitably begins with the oak ; though the 

 King of the forest holds its proud place in 

 part through its mere serviceableness to man. 

 Evelyn places it first when discoursing on 

 forest-trees in his Sylva, and eloquently praises 

 it for its useful qualities. '* To enumerate now 

 the incomparable uses of this wood," he says, 

 "were needless: but so precious was the 

 esteem of it, that of old there was an express 

 law of the Twelve Tables concerning the very 

 gathering of the acorns though they should be 

 found fallen into another man's ground : The 

 land and the sea do sufficiently speak for the 

 improvement of this excellent material ; houses 

 and ships, cities and navies are built with it ; 

 and there is a kind of it so tough, and extremely 

 compact, that our sharpest tools will hardly 

 enter it, as scarcely the very fire itself, in which 

 it consumes but slowly, as seeming to partake 

 of a ferruginous and metallin shining nature 

 proper for sundry robust uses. That which is 

 twined, and a little wreathed (easily to be dis- 



