98 THE FLORIST AND 
residence, and gives it an appearance of warmth and protection. It also 
adds materially to the effect of summer scenery, by the greater depth of its 
shade. We should sadly miss the few evergreens we have, and could find 
innumerable uses for a great many more. It is only where they are made to 
preponderate in the embellishments of a country residence designed chiefly 
as a summer resort, that their extensive employment is injudicious, or the 
advantages of deciduous trees so very superior. Of the many fine decidu- 
ous trees we have in cultivation, the British Oak is far from being the least 
beautiful. Its rarity is a great loss to many otherwise good collections. 
Many of our enterprising nurserymen who strive to keep pace with the 
wants of the age, have fair stocks of it now on hand, and we may soon 
hope to find it more common. 
It thrives remarkably well in our climate, better in my opinion than it 
does in its own. Near Philadelphia, we have specimens 70 and 80 feet 
high, and trunks four to five feet thick. In this respect, it has a much 
more " free and easy" way of getting along through the world, than its 
nearest congener, our own White Oak ; which in spite of the far-famed skill 
of British arboriculturists, has never been made to do well in British climes. 
Our part of the country is famed for its numerous fine specimens of very 
rare trees. There is something rare and beautiful to be seen in almost every 
lane, and at every neglected corner. Last summer I fell in with a specimen 
of the British Oak, which impressed me the more favorably of its peculiar 
beauty, than any specimen of it I had ever seen before. It was a young 
,tree, probably not thirty years old ; thirty or forty feet high, with a trunk 
«over twenty inches in diameter. Its branches commenced extending from 
the trunk, about six feet from the ground, with a radius of perhaps 
fifteen feet ; and its outline roundly tapering to the top, formed a most 
pleasing object of perfect symmetry. This tree, too, was literally covered 
with its long-stalked acorns, the pale green color of which, backed by the 
bluish hue of the foliage, gave the tree a peculiar character when seen at a 
long distance off. 
The English Oak is denied the pleasure of participating in the festivities 
of the " Indian Summer," which our partial friend " Sam " dispenses to his 
own native born children ; while the Sweet Gum and Sassafras, the Maple 
and the Tupelo, appear before their admirers in their most brilliantly colored 
foliage, the British Oak lingers in the rear, in its green summer clothing, 
which it retains till unceremoniously hustled behind the scenes of winter, by 
the first severe white frost. 
If the Oak is transplanted at the end of its second year from the acorn, 
