Around the " Pond " — First Excursion 



again, become luminous. It is the white oak above 

 all others that clings to its withered foliage, a mournful 

 instrument for winter winds to play upon. The pin oak 

 is the easiest to recognize in winter by its drooping 

 lower branches that often sweep the ground. Culture 

 cannot spoil the oak spirit ; there is a refreshing barba- 

 rism in all the species that gives a wholesome, stirring 

 tone to scenery, much like the wild resonance of kettle- 

 drum and trombone to invigorate the mellifluous flute 

 and oboe and ethereal strings in a human orchestra. 



Three unusual oaks in the Park should have special 

 mention. A singular variety is the cut-leaved (jQuercus 

 robur asplenifolia) from abroad, an interesting curiosity. 

 Our native willow oak (^Q. phellos), with a shining, 

 leathery leaf, almost a fac-simile in shape of a willow 

 leaf, is a beautiful tree, which, despite the willow type, 

 is very oakish, and one of the handsomest is the Turkey 

 oak (^. cerris), of Southern Europe, with especially 

 effective foliage, and extremely dark, deeply furrowed 

 bark, found clustered and singly in several places. 



Willows. — One of the most easily recognized types 

 of growth is found in willows. Generically so distinc- 

 tive, they are, however, the hardest of all to resolve into 

 species, offering quite as much difficulty to the botanist 

 as sparrows do to the ornithologist. Four kinds — ^weep- 

 ing, yellow, shining, and (in early spring) pussy willows 

 — are readily distinguishable, and their landscape effect 

 is individual ; but of nearly all the rest the differences 

 are so minute as to be of little interest except to the 

 expert. Even scientists are not agreed, and what one 

 6i 



