1752 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART 1JI. 



vernment plantations of about 6000 acres of young trees have always, nomi- 

 nally at least, been kept up ; new pieces of ground being enclosed as the part 

 already planted became sufficiently advanced to be thrown open to the forest. 

 An act passed in 1800 remedied many previously existing abuses; and the 

 plantations are now in a flourishing state. (See Part IV.) 



In France and Germany, the oak is one of the principal trees that have 

 been subjected to cultivation ; and, in the oldest accounts on record respecting 

 artificial plantations, the oak is mentioned as the object of especial attention. 

 In France it is more attended to than in Germany, on account of the fleet 

 which that country has possessed for many centuries. The timber for the 

 French navy has not only for many centuries been obtained from the oaks in the 

 national forests, but even to the present day there is a law by which every 

 private individual who possesses an oak tree of certain dimensions, considered 

 to be fit for constructing the larger kinds of ships of war, is obliged, when he 

 intends to cut it down, to make the first offer of it to government. In 

 Baudrillart's Dictionnaire des Eaux et Forets will be found numerous regu- 

 lations respecting the common oak, all proving how much its timber is valued 

 beyond that of all other trees in France. After having thus given what may 

 be called the economical history of the common British oak, we shall next 

 say a few words respecting its legendary history in the British Islands, and 

 its biography. 



Legendary History. The oak appears to have been an object of worship 

 among the Celts and ancient Britons. The Celts worshipped their God Teut 

 under the form of this tree ; and the Britons regarded it as a symbol of their 

 god Tarnawa, the god of thunder. According to Professor Burnet, from Hu 

 (the Bacchus of the druids) came the word Yule ; but others derive it from 

 Baal, Bel, or Yiaoul, who was the Celtic god of fire, and was sometimes 

 identified with the Sun, and was also worshipped under the form of an 

 oak. Baal was considered the same as the Roman Saturn, and his festival 

 (that of Yule) was kept at Christmas, which was the time of the Satur- 

 nalia. The druids professed to maintain perpetual fire; and once every 

 year all the fires belonging to the people were extinguished, and relighted 

 from the sacred fire of the druids This was the origin of the Yule 

 log, with which, even so lately as the commencement of the last century, the 

 Christmas fire, in some parts of the country, was always kindled ; a fresh log 

 being thrown on and lighted, but taken off before it was consumed, and re- 

 served to kindle the Christmas fire of the following year. The Yule log was 

 always of oak ; and, as the ancient Britons believed that it was essential for 

 their hearth fires to be renewed every year from the sacred fire of the 

 druids, so their descendants thought that some misfortune would befall them 

 if any accident happened to the Yule log. (See Irving's Bracebridgc Half.) 

 The worship of the druids was generally performed under an oak ; and a heap 

 of stones was erected, on which the sacred fire was kindled, which was called 

 a cairn, as Professor Burnet says, from kern, an acorn. The mistletoe was 

 held in great reverence ; and, as it was not common on the oak, solemn cere- 

 monies attended the search for it. The druids fasted for several days, and 

 offered sacrifices in wicker baskets or frames ; which, however, were not made 

 of willow, but of oak twigs, curiously interwoven ; and were similar to that 

 still carried by Jack in the Green on May-day, which, according to Professor 

 Burnet, is one of the relics of druidism. When all was prepared for the 

 search (the mistletoe having been, no doubt, previously found by some of the 

 assistants), the druids went forth, clad in white robes, to search for the sacred 

 plant ; and, when it was discovered, one of the druids ascended the tree, and 

 gathered it with great ceremony, separating it from the oak with a golden 

 knife. The mistletoe was always cut at a particular age of the moon, at the 

 beginning of the year, and with the ceremonies already detailed under the head 

 of Ffscum (see p. 1022.); and it was only sought for when the druids had 

 had visions directing them to seek it. When a great length of time elapsed 

 without this happening, or if the mistletoe chanced to fall to the ground, it 



