AMENTIFERZ. 147 
six years they grow rapidly till they have attained the age of thirty or forty years, 
after which most of the species live and continue to increase in size for centuries. 
The earliest histories that exist contain records of the oak. The grove planted by 
Abraham at Beersheba was of allwn, which Hillier considers to have been Quercus 
Hsculus; and in Husebius’s “Life of Constantine’? we find the oaks of Mamre 
expressly mentioned as a place where idolatry was committed by the Israelites close 
to the tomb of Abraham. These, Dr. Hooker tells us, were fine specimens of 
(. Pseudo-coceifera. The first mention of the oak in the English version of the 
Bible appears to be in Genesis xxxv. 8: “ But Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and 
she was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon- 
bachuth ;” or, as we have it in the margin, “ the oak of weeping.’ Numerous other 
instances of the mention of oaks occur in the Scriptures. We read of Absalom, 
whose hair was caught by the “ thick boughs of a great oak,” and of Joshua, before his 
death, taking a great stone, and setting it up there “ under a great oak that was by 
the sanctuary of the Lord,” as a witness against the people, lest they should deny 
God. Mr. Loudon writes: “ Among the Greeks, the Arcadians believed that the oak 
was the first created of trees, and that they were the first people ;” but, according to 
others, the oaks which produced the acorns first eaten by men grew on the banks of 
Achelous. Pelasgus taught the Greeks to eat acorns, as well as to build huts. The 
oak groves of Dodona in Epirus formed the most celebrated and most ancient oracle 
on record; and Pliny states that the oaks in the Forest of Hercynia were believed to 
be coeval with the world. Herodotus and numerous other Greek writers speak of 
celebrated oaks ; and it was an oak that destroyed Milo of Crete. Pliny states that 
oaks still existed at the tomb of Ilus, near Troy, which had been sown when that 
city was first called Ilium.’ Socrates often swore by the oak; and on Mount 
Lyezus, in Arcadia, there was a temple of Jupiter, with a fountain, into which the 
priest threw an oak branch in times of drought, to produce rain. The Greeks had 
two remarkable sayings relative to this tree, one of which was, “I speak to the oak,” 
as a solemn asseveration ; and the other, “ Born of an oak,” applied to a foundling ; 
because anciently children whose parents wished to get rid of them, were frequently 
exposed in the hollow of an oak-tree. Frequent reference is made to the oak by old 
writers, on account of the use made of the acorns in feeding pigs. The Romans used 
acorns for this purpose. In Strabo’s time Rome was chiefly supplied with hogs 
which were fattened on the acorns in the woods of Gaul. Many laws were anciently 
enacted with reference to acorns. The Romans expressly provided, that the owner 
of a tree might gather up his acorns, though they should have fallen on another man’s 
ground. In Britain at one time the oak was prized chiefly on account of the acorns. 
Woods of old were valued according to the number of hogs they could fatten, and so 
rigidly were the forest lands surveyed, that in ancient records, such as the Doomsday 
Book, woods are mentioned of a “single hog.” The right of feeding swine in the 
woods, called Pannage, formed, some few centuries ago, one of the most valuable 
kinds of property. With this right monasteries were endowed, and it often con- 
stituted the dowry of the daughters of the Saxon Kings. Evelyn states that a peck 
of acorns a day, with a small quantity of bran, will make a hog increase a pound in 
weight per day for two months together. Acorns, in times of scarcity, and in some 
countries, have supplied valuable food for man as well as for beasts. Pliny tells us, 
in his time, that they were ground, mixed with meal, and made into bread. He also 
says, that in Spain acorns were brought to table to eat. Spenser alludes to this in 
these lines— 
