FIELD LIVE OAK. 79 



able methods the All wise Himself hath instituted, nay, 

 ordained, so as in any, and all ways to fulfill, finish off, polish, 

 or beautifully adorn human life, that it be duly prepared to 

 go forth to every serious and earnest duty, even with joy and 

 with a song; run its high race of hallowed destiny rightly, 

 and be greatly glorified! 



The main body of the Field Live Oak is short — say five 

 to fifteen feet, two to eight feet in diameter, forty to one hun- 

 dred feet high, and often still greater spread — branches low, 

 often extending nearly or quite horizontally, with many 

 exceptions and indefinite variations, if, indeed, any general 

 direction can be predicted of a Live Oak; it is, however, 

 sufficiently safe, to convey a true idea of character, to say 

 the lower masses of foliage are usually within reach from 

 the ground ; the principal limbs have the angular, zigzag, 

 lightening lines of determined vigor and massive strength — 

 couchant lion of the groves. This flexuosity is but the com- 

 pressed spiral approacing a plane, which symbolizes while it 

 gives the greatest power of infinite variation, yet forever 

 retains its own essential character, has all the lesser quirks 

 of its cogeners, nevertheless always tends, true to its type, to 

 present roundish outline of special branch-mass, as of the 

 entire top. The artist may rarely find one in that state of 

 "venerable decay" so often seen among many other oaks; 

 our Live Oaks of the greatest antiquity seem most vigorous. 

 We have in mind, while penning this brief notice, many 

 grand illustrative types in the vicinity of San Francisco. 

 Around the city in various directions may be seen trees simi- 

 lar to those of the San Rafael reservoir — body ten to twelve 

 feet high, eight feet in the smallest diameter; bark blackish, 

 thick, rough, and chinky; huge well balanced branches, 

 four to six feet in diameter, horizontally spread one hundred 

 and twenty-eight or more feet; eighty to one hundred feet 

 high, dividing its strength into such monster main branches 

 that some, at the spacious first forks, a cross section of which 

 would give you a table plank ten by fifteen feet, or more. 

 AVe may not dwell at length on the quaint and manifold 

 forms of this pastoral tree — a study of art — perhaps they are 

 already too familiar to warrant any but the mere mock 

 interest of novelty; but the ever varying hath in it some- 

 what of all beauty, the never ending variety of genuine 

 interest, however familiar. 



Some trees, like their counterpart, humanity, seek repose, 

 shrink from the stormy strife of fierce, persistent breezes; 

 yielding, they lean to leeward along the coast and bay mar- 

 gins, plains, in windy gaps, on hills and northwestern vales, 

 wind-way records; the tops of some seem capriciously to 

 lean off from declivities, hiding the body support like an 

 awning, others lie prone upon the ground, or knuckle down 



