Around the “ Pond ”—First Excursion 
again, become luminous. It is the white oak above 
all others that clings to its withered foliage, a mournful 
instrument for winter winds to play upon. The pin oak 
is the easiest to recognize in winter by its drooping 
lower branches that often sweep the ground. Culture 
cannot spoil the oak spirit; there is a refreshing barba- 
rism in all the species that gives a wholesome, stirring 
tone to scenery, much like the wild resonance of kettle- 
drum and trombone to invigorate the mellifluous flute 
and oboe and ethereal strings in a human orchestra. 
Three unusual oaks in the Park should have special 
mention. A singular variety is the cut-leaved (Quercus 
robur asplentfolia) from abroad, an interesting curiosity. 
Our native willow oak (Q. phellos), with a shining, 
leathery leaf, almost a fac-simile in shape of a willow 
leaf, is a beautiful tree, which, despite the willow type, 
is very oakish, and one of the handsomest is the Turkey 
oak (Q. cerris), of Southern Europe, with especially 
effective foliage, and extremely dark, deeply furrowed 
bark, found clustered and singly in several places. 
WIiLLows.—One of the most easily recognized types 
of growth is found in willows. Generically so distinc- 
tive, they are, however, the hardest of all to resolve into 
species, offering quite as much difficulty to the botanist 
as sparrows do to the ornithologist. Four kinds—weep- 
ing, yellow, shining, and (in early spring) pussy willows 
—are readily distinguishable, and their landscape effect 
is individual; but of nearly all the rest the differences 
are so minute as to be of little interest except to the 
expert. Even scientists are not agreed, and what one 
61 
