Trees, Shrubs and Vines 
leaves the first season, enough to keep life in the root, 
which will drill deeper and deeper. When age or acci- 
dent removes the tree which has overshadowed it, then 
it will assert itself. Fires may run over the land, destroy- 
ing almost everything else ; the oak will be killed to 
the ground ; but it will throw up a new shoot the next 
spring.’’ What indomitable will! Those who accept 
the Darwinian theory will have no difficulty, in the case 
of some men, in finding the oak in their direct line of 
ancestry. 
No other genus of trees shows such varieties of leaf- 
type as are found in the numerous species of oak ; yet 
bring together a leaf from each from all over the world, 
and there is something in every one that plainly asserts 
its common origin. 
Out of eight or ten common species, the white oak is 
probably the most satisfactory for cultivation for its very 
healthy foliage, which is more free from insect attack 
than any other; yet the pin oak (Quercus palustris) is 
sometimes as thrifty and of handsomer foliage ; the red 
and scarlet oaks are also more showy, with large glossy 
leaves, and the swamp white (Quercus bicolor) rivals 
them all with a leaf that is both leathery and lustrous. 
The post oak (Q. mznor) is less pretentious in size, but its 
glossy, thick and almost evergreen leaf is one of the 
handsomest in the family. In our third excursion we 
shall encounter the most imposing oak specimen in the 
park—a mossy-cup-oak (Q. macrocarpa). What magnifi- 
cence of color in October from all the various sorts, 
robing the forests in such deep rich tones as senda 
thrill through all the landscape ; here is the oak-fibre 
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