EllROllS IN PROPAGATING OAK. 



215 



their first appearance, extremely tender. The for- 

 mer are subject to be blackened and shrivelled in 

 the blast ; the latter are brittle, and break like ice. 

 Both are very liable to be bitten by frost ; the leaves 

 in spring, the shoots both in spring and autumn. It 

 is only, therefore, where oaks are well sheltered from 

 the inclemency of the weather that they grow with 

 any tolerable quickness : " The epithet hardy," says 

 PoNTEY, *' has been so constantly applied to the 

 oak, that what is only true of the wood^ is generally 

 believed of the vegetable ; hence we very naturally 

 overlook the real treatment to which inattention 

 exposes it. But certainly the season in which it ve- 

 getates, or the circumstance of its first shoots being 

 frequently destroyed by frosts late in May, exhibits 

 no proofs of hardiness; and the same may be gathered 

 from the woodman's remark, that the bark isfrequent- 

 ly difficult to take off in cool weather. Nor does its 

 being found upon very cold exposures prove the 

 fact, but much to the contrary. " The starveling 

 oak upon the mountain's brow" is almost prover- 

 bial ; it will live, but can never thrive in such a si- 

 tuation. The truth is, that the plant requires a 

 considerable portion of warmth, not only to put its 

 juices in motion, but to keep them so ; as is proved 

 by its appearance and progress in different degree^« 



