THE OAK. 



Trees constitute an order of nobility ; for nature 

 has its aristocracy as well as mankind. If there be 

 " ancient and noble " families in a nation or a com- 

 munity, — still older, and inheriting yet more dignity, 

 are the families of living things by which man is en- 

 circled. He can claim no honor on the score of de- 

 scent or genealogy that is not already merited by some 

 patrician of the world of plants ; and this not so much 

 because trees are the same to-day that they were in 

 the beginning, as by reason of their absolute excel- 

 lence, their serene and invulnerable perfection. 



Trees are sanitary agents in the economy of the 

 world we live in. By the process of " assimilation," 

 which means the abstraction of carbon from the at- 

 mosphere, in order that in due time, and through cer- 

 tain vital processes, it may be converted into wood 

 and other vegetable substances, — by the process of 

 " assimilation," we say, trees, through the medium of 

 their leaves, preserve the air in a condition fit for hu- 

 man breathing. Herbaceous vegetation greatly con- 

 tributes to this great end; but the result is mainly 



