OAK TREE. 



279 



The ilex grows much quicker than the Common Oak, 

 and the wood is tougher. It was not brought into ge- 

 neral cultivation here till the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century. There is a variety called the Holly-leaved Oak, 

 which some botanists consider as a different species, under 

 the name of Quercus Gramuntia. 



There is a species called the Chestnut-leaved Oak, 

 Quercus prinus, of which the foliage is so similar to that 

 of the chestnut tree, that it is not immediately to be di- 

 stinguished from it. 



The Velani Oak, Quercus JEgilops, is a very fine tree ; 

 a native of the Levant, and of the south of Europe. The 

 acorns are brought from the Levant for dyeing : they are 

 called Valonia, from the Romaic name of the tree : they 

 are very large, and have scaly cups, nearly the length 

 of the fruit. 



An Englishman claims a right to the Oak, as though 

 no other country possessed such a tree, or no other Oak 

 were to be compared with the British. Virgil has praised 

 the Esculus, and the Esculus is understood to be an Oak ; 

 surely then it must be ours ! Pliny has praised the 

 Phagus, and lhat is supposed to be an Oak ; then that, 

 too, must be ours. It is an awkward fact that the Oak 

 is generous enough to bestow itself upon any tolerably 

 temperate climate ; it is not fastidious in soil, but will 

 not bear a very cold, or a very warm climate. America 

 boasts of very fine Oaks, of many species, especially one 

 called the Live Oak : it were a dangerous temerity to 

 say that the British Oak is not the sovereign of them all, 

 nay, of all trees whatsoever : it were a temerity not to be 

 feared from one of British birth ; and Britain, at least, 

 may boast of having turned it to the best account, and 

 paid it the most grateful homage. The Roman;> only 



