DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
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up with a noble trunk, and stretching out its broad limbs over 
the soil, 
“ These monarch s of the wood, 
Dark, gnarled, centennial oaks,” 
seem proudly to bid defiance to time ; and while generations 
of man appear and disappear, they withstand the storms of a 
thousand winters, and seem only to grow more venerable and 
majestic. They are mentioned in the oldest histories ; we 
are told that Absalom was caught by his hair in “the thick 
boughs of a great oak f and Herodotus informs us that the 
first oracle was that of Dodona, set up in the celebrated oak 
grove of that name. There, at first, the oracles were de- 
livered by the priestesses, but, as was afterwards believed, 
by the inspired oaks themselves — 
“ Which in Dodona did enshrine, 
So faith too fondly deemed, a voice divine.” 
Acorns, the fruit of the oak, appear to have been held in 
considerable estimation as an article of food among the an- 
cients. Not only were the swine fattened upon them, as in 
our own forests, but they were ground into flour, with which 
bread was made by the poorer classes. Lucretius mentions, 
that before grain was known, they were the common food of 
man ; but we suppose the fruit of the chestnut may also 
have been included under that term. 
“ Thatoake whose acornes were our foode before 
The Cerese seede of mortal man was knowne.” 
Seenser. 
The civic crown, given in the palmy days of Rome, to the 
most celebrated men, was also composed of oak leaves. 
It should not be forgotten that the oak was worshipped by 
the ancient Britons. Baal or Yiaoul, (whence Yule,) was the 
