FOEEST TREES AND FOREST SCENERY 



"When we consider its great and 



surpassing utility and beauty, we are 



fully disposed to concede it the first 



rank among the denizens of the forest. 



Springing up with a noble trunk, and 



stretching out its broad limbs over the 



soil, 



' These monarchs of the wood, 

 Dark, gnarled, centeimial oaks,' 



seem proudly to bid defiance to time; 

 and while generations of man appear 

 and disappear, they withstand the 

 storms of a thousand winters, and seem 

 only to grow more venerable and 

 majestic." 



It would be difficult to say whether 

 Downing had any particular species of 

 oak in mind when he wrote these words. 

 The common white oak and the several 

 species of red and black oak possess in 

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