DESCRIPTIVE ENUMERATION 01' TREES. 45 



Ergo noil hiemes illam, non flabra, iieque imbres 

 Convelluiifc : inimota mauet, multosque per annos 

 ]\Iulta virCim volvens durando secula viucit. 

 Turn fortes late ramos, et brachia tendens 

 Hue illuo, media ipsa ingentem sustiiiet umbram.' * 



SubjoJuecl is Gilpin's translation of Virgil's lines on the 

 Oak. The assumption in the translation that by the 

 word Esculus a species of Oak is intended, is, we think, 

 fully justified — as Gilpin shows — by the description itself. 

 The word is derived from esca, food, and has reference to 

 the edible fruit of the Oak. Pliny uses the word in the 

 same sense; and though some persons have considered 

 that the Beech, which has, of course, also an edible nut, 

 was intended, there can be little doubt that both of the 

 classical authors really referred to the Italian Oak, the 

 Quercus esculus of botanical nomenclature. — Ed. 



' Deep in the bowels of the earth, the Oak, 

 With hardy effort, drives his vigorous root, 

 And rears his head as high. No winter storm 

 Can touch a trunk so founded. Years revolve ; 

 The puny generations of mankind, 

 Each after each, expire ; yet firm he stands. 

 And stretching, far and wide, his sinewy arms, 

 With comprehensive span and sweep of shade, 

 O'erspreads a district.' 



I sliall not enter into a criticism oa the word 

 esculus, wliicli cannot, on any good authority, I 



* Georg. ii. 290. 

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