THE TREES OF AMERICA. 29 



&c., we shall notice hereafter, and shall, perhaps, find that here they act as 

 important a part in the general economy of nature as any other agents. 



The Assabet Oak, with which we commenced this chapter, is on the Randall 

 estate in the town of Stow, Massachusetts, near the Assabet Brook, whose gently- 

 flowing waters were singing in my ears while I was engaged in drawing the 



» 



portrait of the beautiful tree. 



I have chosen this tree for my plate on account of its great beauty, more 

 than from its size, and also on account of my regard for the family in whose 

 possession it is, who have resisted many large offers of money for this and other 

 fine trees on the estate, while all around, the forests have been converted into 

 dollars. The author of " The Consolations of Solitude," who has protected this 

 noble tree, with its brothers, from the woodman's axe, speaks of the scenery 

 of the brook and river as he saw it ere its glory had departed through the short- 

 sighted cupidity of those who should have well considered, before they made 

 such sweeping destruction. The beautiful stream upon which the monarch tree 

 looks down is thus described in melodious verse : — 



"Low on either margin bending, 

 Drooping elms, their dark boughs blending, 

 Look their long arms the gorge across ; 

 And as the breeze-fanned branches toss, 

 The green leaves, fluttering to and fro. 

 But half conceal the surge below, 

 Whiter than the drifted snow ; 

 While the pale mists, all silvery gray. 

 Brood o'er the gulf of boiling spray." 



The estate has been in the family almost since the first settlement of the 

 town, and this tree, together with many other sturdy sons of the wood, has 

 been preserved with pious care from generation to generation, so that the spirits 

 of the red men of the forest, if they ever revisit the scenes of their council fires, 

 and their hunting grounds, would find here many of the " old memorial trees " 

 which looked down upon them when all this broad land was theirs. This oak is 

 nearly one hundred feet in height and span, and some twenty feet in circum- 

 ference near the ground. These dimensions may not be entirely correct, as I give 



