ON THE OAK. 77

by its acorns—should you have known it if there had
been none P

Geo. I don’t know—I believe not.

Lut. Observe, then, in the first place, that its bark
is very rugged. ‘Then sec in what manner it grows.
Its great arms run out almost horizontally from its
trunk, giving the whole tree a sort of round form, and
making it spread far on every side. Its branches are
also subject to be crooked or kneed. By these marks
you might guess at an oak even in winter, when quite
bare of leaves. But its leaves afford a surer mark of
distinction, since they differ a good deal from those of
other English trees, being neither whole and even at
the edges, nor yet cut like the teeth of a saw, but
rather deeply scolloped,and formed into several rounded
divisions. ‘Their colour is a fine deep green. Then
the fruit—

far. Fruit!

Tut. Yes—ail kinds of plants have what may pro-
perly be called fruit, though we are apt to give that
name only to such as are food for man. The fruit of
a plant is the seed, witn what contains it. This, in
the oak, is called an acorn, which is a kind of nut,
partly enclosed in a cup. |

Geo. Acorn-cups are very pretty things. I have
made boats of them, and set them swimming in a
basin. |

Tut. And if you were no bigger than a fairy, you
might use them for drinking-cups, as those 1maginary
little beings are said to do.

‘‘ Pearly drops of dew we drink |
In acorn-cups, filled to the brink.”

Har. Are acorns good to eat P . |

Geo. No, that they are not. I have tried, and did
not like them at all. |

Tut. Tu the early ages of man, before he cultivated
the earth, but lived upon such wild products as nature
afforded, we are told that acorns made a considerable