218 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
ancient Germans and Celts, who worshipped 
under its form their god Teut. Their priests, 
the Druids, offered sacrifices beneath it; their 
victims were crowned with Oak-leaves, and it 
was requisite that the piles of wood on which 
they were burned should be lighted with brands 
of Oak. 
By modern Britain the Oak, as furnishing 
the material of which our fleets are constructed, 
has justly been adopted as the emblem of her 
naval power—that power of which the first of 
our living poets proudly says :— 




Britannia needs no bulwarhs, 
No towers along the steep ; 
Her march is on the mountain wave, 
Her home is on the deep. 
Though our dusky forests are no longer the 
haunts of Hamadryads and fairies, still the 
aspect of a majestic Oak excites admiration and 
awe. When, in youthful vigour, it rears its 
proud head and spreads its immense arms, it 
looks like a protector, like a king. Shattered 
by the thunderbolt, stripped of its foliage, and 
motionless, it resembles an old man who has 
lived past his time, and who takes no interest 


