306 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
scarcity of the former is due to a higher apprecia- 
tion of its qualities on the part of our forefathers. 
The Wavy-leaved Oak is, however, of slower 
growth than its rival, and as we find that it 
is slowness of growth that promotes the solid 
and enduring qualities of timber, it may be 
assumed, with some reason, that the qualities 
of toughness and endurance are likely to be 
more pronounced in the slower-growing Quercus . 
pedunculata. The Flat-leaved Oak is a more 
beautiful Tree than Pedunculata. It grows 
straighter and more gracefully, in trunk, limb, 
and branch, than the wavy-leaved species. 
There is not the same contortion of limbs and 
boughs—for its branches all grow in more 
parallel planes, and its foliage is more symmetri- 
cally and evenly turned, and does not exhibit 
the sort of dishevelled appearance conspicuous 
in Pedunculata. Its individual leaves, too, are 
larger and brighter, more regularly lobed, more 
vivid in colour, and more glossy. There is more 
‘grace too in their venation—the veinlets, branch- 
ing from both sides of the mid-stems, proceeding 
in straighter lines and with more regularity than is 
