DESOllIPTIVE BNUMEEATION OF TREES. 47 



tap-root, in tlie poet's language, even into the 

 infernal regions. No tree resists the blast so 

 steadily. We seldom see the Oak, like other 

 trees, take a twisted form from the winds.* Media 

 ipsa ingentem sustinet umhram : that is, I appre- 

 hend, it preserves its balance; which we have 

 seen is one of the grand picturesque beauties of 

 every tree. The Oak, no doubt, like other trees, 

 shrinks from the sea air. But this indicates no 

 weakness. ("The sea air, like a pestilential disease, 

 attacks the strongest constitutions. It acts by 

 injuring the early bud, which destroys the spray, 

 and, of course, the branch.N 



A second characteristic of the Oak, of which 

 Virgil takes notice, is the stoiUness of its limbs ; 

 its fortes ramos. We know no tree, except 

 perhaps the Cedar of Lebanon, so remarkable in 



* J\lr. "Wise, in his valuable work on the Nevf Torest (London, 

 Smith, Elder, and Co., 1862) refers to the extraordinary effect 

 of the Channel winds on the Oaks on the southern side of the 

 Forest, where he says (page 10) that the trees are ' strained and 

 tortured as they are nowhere else in England.' He adds in a 

 footnote : ' In the lower part of the forest, near the Channel, 

 the effect is quite painful, all the trees being strained away from 

 the sea, like Tennyson's thorn.' — Ed. 



