504 OCTANDRIA. TETRAGYNIA. Rhodiola. 
RHODFOLA.* B. and F. flowers on different plants. 
B. Bloss. four petals : Cal. with four divisions : Nect. 
four, notched. 
Straight Lelius from amidst the rest stood forth, 
An old centurion of distinguished worth ; 
The oaken wreath his hardy temples wore, 
Mark of a citizen preserved he bore.” 
And likewise various authorities prove that 
“ With boughs of Oak was graced the nuptial train.” 
Descending to remarkable facts in the history of later times, it is singular that, though 
the Oak may have been abused to superstition, Cromwellian reformers caused the acorn to 
be set on the top of the crown instead of the cross. Of happy presage (as the royalist par¬ 
tisans would infer), that tne tree which bore such fruit should shelter the rightful sove¬ 
reign from the fury of rebellion, till the cross resumed its place upon the crown. 
46 A grove appears which Boscobel they name,— 
* * * henceforth no celebrated shade 
Of all the British groves shall be more glorious made.” 
In commemoration of that event, and the restoration of Charles II, on the 29th of May, 
also that monarch’s birth day, Oak boughs are still exhibited. But the adaptation of this 
noble tree to naval purposes has long intimately connected it with our national glory; 
“ The Oak, when living, monarch of the wood, 
The English Oak which, dead, commands the flood.” 
And it is gratifying to learn that by the vigilant superintendance of commissioners, no less 
than 51,627 acres are now actually thus occupied in timber or young plantations. Nor 
can private individuals bestow a more patriotic boon on generations yet unborn, than by 
encouraging 
“ Those sapling Oaks which, at Britannia’s call, 
May heave their trunks mature into the main, 
And float the bulwarks of her liberty.” Mason. 
Oak loves hilly better than boggy ground, and thrives best, while young, in large 
plantations. Its roots descend deep into the earth, and therefore will not bear to be trans¬ 
planted. Much lopping destroys it. Grass will hardly grow beneath it. (Variegated kinds 
are propagated by grafting. For classical description of the Oak, none exceeds that of 
Virgil. 
f( Veluti annoso validam cum robore Quercum 
Alpini Borese, nunc bine, nunc flatibus illinc 
Eruere inter se certant: it stridor, et alte 
Consternunt terram concusso stipite frondes : 
Ipsa hferet scopulis ; et quantum vertice ad auras 
iEtherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit.” J£n. iv. 441. 
The accurate Gilpin, descending to the characteristic ramification, observes : i( The Oak 
divides his boughs from the stem more horizontally than most other deciduous trees. The 
spray makes exactly in miniature the same appearance, (according to a simple principle 
obvious in other trees). It breaks out in right angles, or nearly so; forming its shoots 
commonly in short lines; the second year’s shoot usually taking some direction contrary 
to that of the first. Thus the rudiments are laid of that abrupt mode of ramification, for 
which the Oak is so remarkable. When two shoots spring from the same knot, they are 
commonly of unequal length ; and one with large strides generally takes the lead. Very 
often also three shoots, and sometimes four, spring from the same knot. Hence the spray 
* (Diminutive of poSov, the rose; the roots of this plant smelling like a rose. E.) 
