OAK-TREE. 91 



lichen, beautiful in the contrast which it presents, and 

 yet denoting that the vigour of the tree is about to fail. 

 Different kinds of mosses also congregate upon the bark : 

 some dark green, others of a rich brown hue and nearly 

 black, others of a dingy orange, others inclining to red, 

 and even to bright yellow, resembling gleams of sunshine, 

 In this brotherhood of parasitic plants, different species 

 blend with one another : the knotted brimstone-tinted 

 lichens cling to an ash-grey species, as the black saucer- 

 lichen, with its broad fringes, is contiguous to a scarlet 

 peziza : thus giving to my rough and furrowed trunk a 

 peculiar character of sylvan beauty. 



Old men like to converse with one another. You may 

 see them in sunny weather, beneath the shelter of some 

 aged tree which they have climbed in boyhood, talking 

 of past days, and those, perchance, who are resting beneath 

 the shadow of the old grey church. Would that the old 

 memorial oaks of Britain could thus meet together, each 

 with his word of wisdom or narratives concerning ages, 



