PRECEDES THE FUNGUS. 307 



It has been thought advisable to go into this 

 case at some length ; first, because it is a highly 

 important one one of the most important to 

 which the attention of a maritime people can be 

 turned; and, secondly, because it shows how 

 dangerous it is to proceed upon mere human 

 opinion, however learned the holder of that opi- 

 nion may be, if it is not borne out by facts which 

 have been found out and established by a careful 

 and thorough observation of nature, in every way 

 in which nature can bear upon the point at issue. 



Imported oak has been blamed for this decay, 

 and it is true that the imported oak, and more 

 especially the oak imported from America, is in- 

 ferior to the oak which once grew in the forests of 

 England. But the deterioration is not confined 

 to the imported oak ; and however bad that may 

 be, it could not inoculate the oaks of the forest 

 with its deleterious qualities, any more than the 

 species of insect called American blight, which 

 infests apple trees, could take its departure for 

 Hereford or Devon, immediately on the landing 

 of a cargo of American apples at Liverpool. The 

 rot is in the timber itself, that is of an inferior 

 quality ; and the cause why it has been allowed 

 to degenerate is, that they by whom oak-trees 

 have been bred, have not been careful in the ob- 

 servation of nature, but have proceeded in their 

 operations by means that had no natural founda- 

 tion. The object of the grower has been to get 

 goodly trees trees that pleased the eye, without 

 any regard to the quality of the timber ; and the 

 object of the nurseryman has been to rear up his 

 seedlings and get them to market as soon and in 

 as showy a condition as possible. 



It has been said that the wrong oak has been 



