THE OAK. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



RANDEUR is the quality which specially distinguishes the 



Oak. Other trees may please the eye by their graceful 



lines, or the exquisite tracery of their foliage, or by the 



impression they give of slimness and fragility, but length 



of days and stubborn strength belong to the Oak, and in old age 



its huge angular boughs, its gnarled stem and weather-beaten bark, 



bear testimony to its toughness and durability. 



More than any other tree it seems to show itself indifferent to 

 all the powers ot the elements. Its massive horizontal boughs as it 

 were defy the force ot gravity. You seldom see the boughs twisted 

 by their encounters with the winds of heaven, or the compact masses 

 of foliage injured by the storm. If the roots meet with obstruction 

 the sympathetic trunk merely bends to regain its natural poise. 



Its tenacity ot lite is marvellous. Where an Oak has been cut 

 back, a new stem often of considerable size will spring up. When 

 time has made a cavernous hollow ot its bole, and its great limbs 

 have been torn away, the upper boughs still put forth leaves. In 

 the last stage of all, when nothing of its former grandeur is left to 

 it but the greatness of its desolation, the Oak is still " monarch of 

 the forest " in its fallen strength. 



