HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



ACORN GLANS. 



THE OAK TREE. QUERCUS. 



Natural Order, Amentacea. A genus of the Monacia 

 Polyandria Class. 



Thresh the wood 

 For masts of Oaks, your fathers' homely food. 



VIRGIL. 



JL HE prince of the Latin poets having thus noticed the 

 food of the early race of mankind, which Ovid tells us, 



" Content with food, which nature freely bred 

 On wildings and on strawberries they fed ; 

 Cornels and bramble-berries gave the rest, 

 And falling acorns furnished out a feast." 



This, we trust, will justify our noticing a fruit, which the 

 Horticulturists have banished from our board by the in- 

 troduction of a more agreeable dessert. It is the fruit or 



