292 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
earliest writers, we see, standing out, as it were, 
vividly against the other inhabitants of ancient 
British woodlands, the noble and stately form of 
the Oak. A charming writer has appropriately 
said that this beautiful Tree is not only a Tree 
but ‘a garden and a country. It is a garden 
which offers a place to smaller plants, and pro- 
vides a home for birds and insects, whilst in a 
broader sense it is a country with a history. 
Could the records of the plant, bird, and insect life 
inhabiting the Oak, made each year—spring, 
summer, autumn, and winter—during one cen- » 
tury of the Tree’s existence, be obtained for us, 
what a world of interest would be opened up 
before the lover of Nature! But the life of an 
Oak is extended over a period far longer than a 
century, enduring through events which make up 
a considerable portion of the world’s history. 
Dryden says of this noble Tree,— 
‘Three centuries he grows; and three he stays 
Supreme in state ; and in three more decays.’ 
And although this indicated term of nine hundred 
years, expressed as the limit of Oak life, may be 
