IT. 1. THE WHITE OAK. 131 
and magnificence, for a time equal to at least five of the genera- 
tions of men :— 
“Multosque nepotes, 
Multa virum volvens durando szcula vincet.” 
When standing together, the mixture of all the various species 
of the oak, will make a much more beautiful forest than any 
one alone. 
The great value of this tree has caused the destruction of 
almost all trunks suitable for timber, so that it is rarely found 
of a large size. One which I measured in Greenfield, in 1838, 
was seventeen feet five inches just above the root, and fifteen 
feet three inches at three feet. A white oak standing nearly 
opposite Deacon Nurse’s, in Bolton, measured, in 1840, nine- 
teen feet, just above the roots, and fourteen feet, at three feet 
from the ground. It had a fine, fresh, broad head. 
The picturesque ruin of a white oak is standing in Brighton, 
where the road called Nonantum Street crosses that from Boston 
to Newton Corner. At the surface of the ground, it measures, 
this first of October, 1845, twenty-five feet and nine inches in 
circumference; at three feet, it is twenty-two feet four inches; 
at six feet, fifteen feet two inches. It tapers gradually to the 
height of about twenty-five feet, where the stump of its ancient 
top is visible, below which point four or five pretty large 
branches are thrown out, which rise twenty or thirty feet 
higher. Below, the places of many former limbs are covered 
over by immense, gnarled and bossed protuberances. The trunk 
is hollow at the base, with a large opening on the southwest, 
through which boys and men may easily enter. It had, pro- 
bably, passed its prime, centuries before the first English voice 
was heard on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. It is still clad 
with abundant foliage, and, if respected as its venerable age 
deserves, it may stand, an object of admiration, for centuries to 
come. 
