WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND TREES. 
PART I. 
NATIVE TREES AND SHRUBS, 
The Oak {Quercus robur). 
When good John Evelyn wrote his “Sylva, or a Discourse 
of Forest Trees,” he was greatly concerned lest our “wooden 
walls ” should diminish in strength for want of a succession 
of stout Oaks in our woodlands, and therefore he put the Oak 
in the forefront of his discourse. To-day steel and teak have 
largely supplanted oak in the building of our navy, and our 
walls of defence are no longer of wood. Yet in spite of these 
changes, and the consequent reduction of the Oak’s importance, 
we must still look upon it as the typical British tree, and, 
regardless of its place in botanical classifications, we shall 
follow the lead of our master and place it first on our list. 
There is no necessity for entering upon a minute description 
of the botanical characters of so well known a tree. The 
sturdy, massive trunk, firm as a rock ; the broad, rounded 
outline of its head, caused by the downward sweeping extremities 
of the wide-spreading lower limbs ; the wavy outline of the 
lobed leaves, and the equally distinct egg-and-cup-shaped fruit 
— these are characters that cannot be confused with those 
