490 Oaks of the state of JSfew York. 
margins of lakes or streams, or beyond the horizontal lines in 
fortifications, an admirable illustration of which is displayed on 
Governor's Island, in the harbor of New York." 
'•' Another beauty the Lombardy poplar possesses, which is almost 
peculiar to itself, is, the waving line it forms when agitated by 
the wind. Most other trees in this respect, are cftly partially 
moved at the same time one side being at rest, while the other is 
in motion." But this tree, as Gilpin expresses it, " waves in one 
single sweep from the top to the bottom, like an ostrich feather 
on a lady's head." 
" The Lombardy poplar, when old, frequently decays at the ex- 
tremity of its branches, which gives the tree an unsightly appear- 
ance. This may be remedied, however, by heading down the 
trunk early in the spring, to the lowermost limbs, and in the course 
of the season, new shoots will spring forth, and in two or three 
years it will assume the character of a young tree." 
OAKS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 
BY L. C. BECK. 
Trees, whether individually or in groups, have ever been con- 
sidered objects of peculiar interest. The grove is associated with 
the earliest records of science; and among physical objects, the 
forest may be considered as exerting the most important influence 
upon the moral world. This idea is beautifully illustrated by 
Humboldt, in his Tahlau de la Mature. " The species of animals," 
says he, " are comparatively few in number, and their fleetness is 
in general such as to remove them quickly from our sight. Vege- 
tables, on the contraiy, act upon our imagination by their immo- 
bility and by their grandeur. Their size indicates their age, and 
it is in vegetables alone, that with this age is associated the ex- 
pression of a force which is constantly renewed. The gigantic 
dragonnier (^Draccena draco), which I have seen in the Canary 
Islands, is sixteen feet in diameter, and enjoying an eternal youth; 
bears still its flowers and its fruits. When the Bethencours, 
French adventurers, made in the 16th century the conquest of the 
Fortunate Isles, the dragonnier of Orotava, as sacred to the natives 
of these islands as the olive of the citadel of Athens, or the elm 
of Ephesus, was as colossal in its dimensions as at the present 
time. In the torrid zone, a forest of Cisalpina and of Hymenia, 
is perhaps the monument of a thousand years." 
Though we cannot boast of such " monuments " as these, the 
