Oak. 
34 
opportunity of doing it honour; indeed, they are the only 
nation that can in any way compare with the English in the 
high value which they set upon the oak. In their emblematic 
ceremonies it filled a most important post: they considered it 
symbolic of majesty and power , and consecrated it to Jupiter, 
who, say the fabulists, was sheltered by it at his birth. “ It is,” 
says Virgil, “Jove’s own tree, 
That holds the woods in awful sovereignty. 
******* 
Stretching his brawny arms and leafy hands, 
His shade protects the plains, his head the hills commands.” 
In this same poem, the second “ Georgic,” the great Latin 
has, as Mr. Gilpin truly observes, in a few words brought to¬ 
gether the most obvious characteristics of this noble tree,— 
its firmness, its stoutness of limb, the sinuousity of its wide- 
spreading branches, and its remarkable longevity. 
Virgil was not alone in his admiration for the kingly oak, as 
the Roman poets, especially Ovid and Lucan, are frequently 
found paying the passing tribute of their deathless verse to 
“ the tree of Jove,” as they love to term it. In the earlier ages 
acorns appear to have been a very important article of food, 
and in ancient Rome it was feigned that Ceres was the first 
who superseded their use by instructing Triptolemus to teach 
the peasantry how to cultivate and use corn: 
“The oak, whose acorns were our food before 
That Ceres’ seed of mortal man was known, 
Which first Triptoleme taught how to be sown.” 
In commemoration of this valuable gift, oak-leaves were 
worn at the festivals held in honour of Ceres, as also by hus¬ 
bandmen in general at the beginning of the harvest. 
To the Roman soldier who saved the life of another in 
battle a chaplet of oak-leaves was awarded. Shakspeare makes 
Cominius say of Coriolanus : 
“ At sixteen years, 
When Tarquin made a head from Rome, he fought 
Beyond the mark of others. 
He proved best man i’ the field, and for his meed 
Was brow-bound with the oak.” 
Lucan refers still more distinctly to the custom: 
“ Lelius from amidst the rest stood forth, 
An old centurion of distinguished worth; 
