222 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
OAK. 
HOSPITALITY. 
The ancients believed that the Oak, coeval with 
the earth, afforded food and shelter to the first of 
men. In the remotest antiquity, it was the symbol 
of majesty and strength, and, as such, sacred to 
Jupiter, whom it sheltered at his birth, on Mount 
Lyces in Arcadia. 
Among the Greeks, the Oak performed an im- 
portant part in their religious ceremonies. The 
oaks in the grove of Dodona in Epirus, near the 
magnificent Temple of Jupiter, gave forth the oracles 
which were there promulgated by the priestesses. 
On the banks of the Achelous grew those Oaks 
whose acorns were the first food of mortals. The 
Dodonean Jupiter, the Fates, and Hecate, were 
crowned with Oak-wreaths, and the heroes who 
sailed in the Argo chose for the mast of that vessel 
an Oak from the sacred grove of Dodona, which 
continued to counsel the adventurers by oracular 
