OCTANDRIA. TETRAGYNIA. Rhodiola. 509 
inches high, cylindrical, smooth, hollow, upright, leafy. Leaves nume¬ 
rous, growing without order, (or rather subimbricated ; E.) egg-shaped. 
The preceding remarks generally apply to either species of British Oak: but it should 
be distinctly understood that the timber produced by Q. ses&iliflora is far less strong 
and valuable than that of Q . robur , and usually of quicker growth. The inferior 
kind is supposed by some authorities to have been introduced two or three centuries 
ago, from the Continent, where the Oaks are chiefly of that species, especially in the 
German forests, the timber of which is known to be very worthless. There is too 
much reason to apprehend that this bad sort has been propagated in the New Forest, and 
other parts of Hampshire ; also in Norfolk, the northern counties, and about London. 
It should be remembered that the acorns of the more valuable sort grow singly, or seldom 
two on the same peduncle ; those of the baser, in clusters of two or three, and sessile, or 
close to the stem of the branch. 
Very numerous are the little animals, and minor vegetables, which depend more or less for 
subsistence on the Oak tree : for 
* * * ^ chief the forest-boughs, 
That dance unnumber’d to the playful breeze, 
* * * 
* * the nameless nations feed 
Of evanescent insects.” Thomson. 
Mr. Kirby justly observes (Linn. Tr. vol. v.), that insects, although diminutive and often 
despised as too insignificant to accomplish important ends, are very powerful instruments to 
promote, sometimes indeed by partial evil, the good of the whole, by rendering their aid in 
preserving a due harmony in the economy of nature. None have a more arduous task 
assigned them than those whose office it is to accelerate the decay of the giant inhabitants of 
the forest, till that which from its bulk and solidity appeared calculated to last as long as the 
earth that gave it birth, is reduced in no very long time to its original dust. And it may 
be further remarked that in proportion to the difficulty of the task enjoined, is the num¬ 
ber and variety of the artificers employed, so that upon the larger kinds of trees will be 
found to afford the most interesting field for the Entomologist. The nests and cells of 
many Vespee are made of a kind of paper formed of the filaments of wood : the hornet 
frequently perforates hollow trunks, to construct her paper metropolis in security, and 
occasionally destroys young Oaks by penetrating to their centre. Tipula pectinicornis 
inhabits putrescent wood, and Oniscus Asellus abounds under the bark. The larva of the 
gigantic Lucanus Cervns, (Stag Beetle), the largest of the British Coleoptera, feeds upon 
decaying Oak or Elm ; in the latter also Lucanus inermis. Several species of Jps t 
(Bostrichus Fab.) as L fuscus , and others, are nourished between the bark and the wood, 
causing what Linnaeus termed pinnated labyrinths, by which the bark is finally separated from 
the wood ; and aiding their operations will be found various Curculiones. Once in three or 
four years cockchafers, ( Scarabceus melolontha), abound, and sometimes strip bare woods 
of Oaks in a few weeks. They again are devoured in the grub state by rooks, and on the 
wing in summer evenings attract the goat-sucker, ( Caprimulgus ). Such is the vigour of 
the-Oak that, after having been thus denuded of leaves, the foliage is generally renewed, 
though rarely so in other trees suffering in like manner. Mr. White remarks that the cock¬ 
chafer grubs “ not only devour the roots of grass, but of corn ; and it ought to be generally 
understood that rooks, so far from meriting persecution from the farmer, deserve his protec¬ 
tion, for it is to feed upon this grub more particularly that they follow the plough.” “ The 
caterpillars of Phalcena Quercus and P. virvidata , though a feeble race, from their infinite 
numbers are of wonderful effect, being able to destroy the foliage of whole forests and 
districts. On leaving their aurelia , and issuing forth in their moth state, they swarm and 
cover the trees, though often checked in some degree by the swifts, which may be observed 
hawking after them.” From the ingenious observations of naturalists we may infer that 
nothing is produced for waste ; but that every thing, each particle, animate or inanimate, 
is subject to fulfil a destined end. Mr. White assures us that “ even the scattered raspings 
of sound timber supply materials for the nests of wasps; while hornets construct theirs 
with what they gnaw from decayed wood: these ligneous particles being kneaded up with 
