Some Observations on the Oak. 75 



perhaps, From association), I love these three; the oak, the 

 ivy, and the hare-bell. The two latter being only ornamental, 

 it is of the oak I intend to make some few observations. Of 

 all our forest trees, not one so much deserves the attention of 

 the naturalist and planter as the oak. In every state, from 

 the seedling plant to the last stage of decay, this beautiful and 

 majestic tree solicits admiration from the eye of taste, as well 

 as the less refined calculations of the speculator of profit. 

 Botanists have given two species of the oak, Quercus Robur 

 (common British oak), and Quercus sessiliflora (sessile-fruited 

 oak); but both species sport in infinite varieties. It has been 

 the opinion of some planters, that the wood of the sessiliflora 

 is inferior in quality to the Robur ; and I am inclined to 

 favour that opinion myself. I think it will be found, on 

 examination, that the wood of the Robur is more dense and 

 compact than the sessiliflora, and grows into a more noble 

 and majestic tree. Among the mountainous parts of the 

 Welsh borders, the sessiliflora grows very plentifully; but I 

 am not aware that I ever saw one grown to a very great size, 

 although I have seen some, to all appearance, of great age. 

 The beauty and utility of the oak appears to have been ap- 

 preciated by the Druids, from which their appellation is 

 taken : derw (oak), Welsh ; darac/i, Gaelic ; and of which 

 the Han, or sacred grove, was chiefly composed. On its 

 branches grew the mystic mistletoe, used at their solemn 

 rites ; and, as now, no doubt the mistletoe was more abun- 

 dant on the crab and hawthorn than on the oak, some pecu- 

 liar virtue was attributed to the one rather than the other, 

 from the beauty or utility of the tree upon which the para- 

 site grew. This, probably, I may be allowed to infer, as, 

 under the patched investiture of ancient mythological rites, 

 we may easily trace a veneration for certain plants and ani- 

 mals that were of service to, or that held an influence over, 

 the moral and physical condition of man. Its utility to our 

 British ancestors must have been very great; for the fruit 

 (however astringent and unpalatable it may be to a modern 

 appetite) formed a portion of their food, and the rifted logs 

 their chief article of firing. It seems to be lord of the soil, 

 and more adapted to our clime than any other denizen of the 

 forest. Unless in the neighbourhood of the sea (a most un- 

 happy situation for any tree), it never shows a " weather side 

 to the storm." When the acorn begins to germinate, the 

 radicle, or what planters term the taproot, very deeply 

 strikes into the earth, and anchors itself safely in its place; 

 and this is done long before the stem has risen from the coty- 

 ledons but a comparatively short length, perhaps not one 



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