148 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
“The oak, whose acorns were our food before 
That Cere’s seed of mortal man was known, 
Which first Triptolemene taught to be sown.” 
During the war in the Peninsula, both the natives and the French fed on the acorns 
found in the woods. 
The antiquity of oak forests is attested by the numerous trees which have been 
dug out of bogs, or raised up from beds of rivers, after having lain there apparently 
for centuries. Fossil oaks, which are abundant in the Isle of Portland, in the lime- 
stone known as Portland stone, afford proof of the great antiquity of this tree. 
An enormous oak was discovered in Hatfield Bog, in Yorkshire, the timber of which 
was perfectly sound; though, from some of the coins of the Emperor Vespasian 
being found in the bog close by, it is supposed to have lain there above a thousand 
years. The carvings and ornaments made in Treland from wood obtained from the 
bogs of that country are chiefly of oak. The wood thus used is very hard and black. 
The ancient legends and superstitions regarding the oak are very remarkable. 
The oaks in the sacred forest of Dodona are mentioned by Herodotus, who relates 
the traditions he heard respecting them from the priests of Egypt. All the trees in 
the grove, he says, were endowed with the gift of prophecy ; and the sacred oaks not 
only spoke and delivered oracles while in a living state, but when some of them were 
cut down to build the ship Argo, the beams and masts of that ship often spoke, and 
warned the Argonauts of their danger. The oracle of Dodona was not only the most 
celebrated, but the richest in Greece, from the offerings of those who came to enquire 
into futurity. The prophecies were first delivered by doves, which were always kept 
in the temple, but afterwards the answers were given by the priestesses ; or, according 
to Homer and others, by the oaks themselves—hollow trees no doubt being chosen, 
in which a priest might be concealed. The oracular power of the Dodonian oaks is 
often alluded to, not only by the Greek and Latin poets, but by those of modern 
times. Cowper says, addressing the Yardley Oak,— 
“Oh! could’st thou speak, 
As in Dodona once thy kindred trees, 
Oracular, I would not curious ask 
The future, best unknown ; but at thy mouth 
Inquisitive, the less ambiguous past. 
By thee I might correct, erroneous oft, 
The clock of history; facts and events 
Timing more punctual, unrecorded facts 
Recovering ; and misstated, setting right.” 
The oak was considered by the ancients as the emblem of hospitality ; because, 
when Jupiter and Mercury were travelling in disguise, and arrived at the cottage of 
Philemon, who was afterwards changed into an oak tree, they were treated with the 
greatest kindness. Philemon was a poor old man, living with his wife Baucis in 
Phrygia, in a miserable cottage, which Jupiter, to reward his hospitality, changed 
into a magnificent temple, of which he made the old couple priest and priestess, 
granting them the only request they made to him, viz. that they might die together. 
Accordingly, when both had grown so old as to wish for death, Jupiter turned Baucis 
into a lime-tree, and Philemon into an oak; the two trees entwining their branches, 
and shading for more than a century the magnificent portal of the Phrygian temple, 
The civic crown of the Romans was made of oak-leaves, and was given for eminent 
