42 



BRITISH FOUKST TREES. 



the thin barked varieties, though planted at the 

 same time. 



To the naturalist the oak is an object of pecidiar 

 interest, from the ciu*ious phenomena connected with 

 the economy of numerous insects who depend upon 

 it for existence. It would be tedious to describe the 

 different apples, galls, excrescences, tufts, and other 

 monstrosities which appear upon the oak. It is 

 something like enchantment ! These insects, merely 

 by a puncture and the deposition of an egg, or drop 

 of fluid, turning Nature from her law, and compell- 

 ing the Genius of the Oak to construct of living or- 

 ganized oak matter, instead of leaves and twigs, 

 fairy domes and temples, in which their embryo 

 young may lie for a time enshrined. 



Spanish CimsT'S^T-rr-Castanea vulgaris, (Fagus Cas- 

 tanea, L.) 



Spanish or sweet Chestnut, sometimes named 

 Chestnut Oak, sometimes included in the genus Fa- 

 gus, seems at least a connecting link between Quer- 

 cus and Fagus. This valuable timber tree, the largest 

 growing, and, in many places, also the most common 

 in the south of Eiurope, and which was once so abun- 



2 



