POETRY OP FLOWERS. 171 
OAK TREE. 
Quercus . Class 21; Order 13. 
The oak embraces about eighty species, chiefly in 
Europe and America. It lives to a great age. The 
flower has no corolla. 
HOSPITALITY.-BRAVERY AND HUMANITY. 
Thanks for the kindly courtesies 
Beside thy hearthstone shared; 
Be every joy that round it lies 
Aud every blessing spared. 
The roof that over me hath spread 
A shelter kind and warm, 
Oh, may it shield thy generous head 
From every chilling storm ! 
For kind, indeed, have been thy cares 
Since ’neath its shade I came! 
I’ve shared in all thy household prayers— 
Thou shalt in mine the same. 
“And the oak, king of Britannia’s woods, 
And guardian of her isle.” 
Dodsley. 
“ The Oak, the king of forests all,” was con¬ 
sidered the most sacred of all trees by the chief 
nations of antiquity, and its existence deemed 
