OAK-TREE. 65 



the wood, where it deposits the principal secretions in 

 all trees. 



Hence it is, that to my bark and roots, my leaves and 

 acorns, different qualities are assigned; that my wood, 

 though hard and tough, is flexible, adapted also for wain- 

 scotting and furniture, and that the highest praise which 

 can be given to men of dauntless enterprise and valour, is to 

 say that they have " hearts of oak." Hence, also, the chemist 

 owes to me oak vinegar, with which to facilitate his ex- 

 periments ; the dyer, bark for tanning ; the gardener, beds 

 for producing artificial heat in pineries ; and while every 

 variety of drab and shade of brown is afforded by my wood 

 or bark, the scribe derives from such excrescences as grow 

 upon my leaves, the blackest and most lasting ink. 



Observe the dull green shrub that grows beside me, 

 with its pendulous and lurid purple blossoms and black 

 berries ; that dull shrub is the deadly nightshade, a plant 

 haunting, most generally, among old ruins and heaps of 

 rubbish, in unison with places from which aught of human 



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