1791 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



TART III. 



Jtf" 



remarkably the case with the celebrated oak at Lord Cowper's [shown mfig. 

 1480. in p. 1741.]. This tree, above a century ago, was well known as the 

 Great Oak at Pan- 

 shanger. There is 

 also a beautiful tree 

 (Jig. 1636.), of the 

 same description, at 

 Lord Darnley's seat 

 at Cobham, which, 

 being protected from 

 the depredations of* 

 cattle, enjoys the 

 most perfect free- 

 dom of growth, ex- 

 tending its latitude 

 of" boughs in every 

 direction, and droop- 

 ing its clustered fo- 

 liage to the very 

 ground." (Slrutt in 

 Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. 

 i. p. 42.) 



_-:^_:.^4^<a 



J.G.STflVTT. 



The Spray of the Oak has been described and illustrated by Gilpin, with his 

 usual felicity. " In the spray of trees," he remarks, " nature seems to observe 

 one simple principle; which is, that the mode of growth in the spray corre- 

 sponds exactly with that of the larger branches, of which, indeed, the spray is 

 the origin, thus, the oak divides his boughs from the 

 stem more horizontal! v than most other deciduous trees. 

 The spray makes exactly, in minia- 

 ture, the same appearance. It 

 breaks out in right angles, or in 

 angles that are nearly so, forming 

 its shoots commonly in short lines 

 [Bee Jigs. 1637. and 1 638., from Gil- 

 pin; and //#. 1639., from Strutt] ; 

 the Second year's shoot usually 

 taking some direction contrary to 

 that of the first. Thus the ru- 

 diments arc laid of that abrupt mode of ramification, for which the oak is 



