Among the Trees at Elmridge Part 4

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE OAK-GALL INSECT (_Cynips_).]

"They are not apples such as we eat, or fruit in any sense," said her governess. "They are the work of a species of fly called _Cynips_, which is very apt to attack the oak. 'The female insect is armed with a sharp weapon called an _ovipositor_, which she plunges into a leaf and makes a wound. Here she lays her eggs; and when she has done so, she flies away and we hear no more of her. But the wound she has made disturbs the circulation of the sap. It flows round and round the eggs as though it had met with some foreign body it would fain remove. Very soon the eggs are in the midst of a ball-like and fleshy chamber--the most suitable provision for them, and one which the parent-insect had provided by means of puncturing the leaf. As the eggs are hatched the grubs will find themselves safely housed and in the midst of an abundance of food.'"

[Ill.u.s.tration: OAK-APPLES.]

"Well," exclaimed Malcolm, in great disgust, "_apple_ is a queer name for a ball full of little flies!"

"It's a very pretty ball, though," said Miss Harson, "with a smooth skin and tinged with red or yellow, like a ripe apple. If it is cut open, a number of granules are seen, each containing a grub embedded in a fruit-like substance. The grub undergoes its transformation, and in due course emerges a perfect insect. These pretty pink-and-white apples used to be gathered by English boys on the twenty-ninth of May, which was called 'Oak-Apple Day.'"

"Did they eat 'em?" asked Edith.

"I do not see how they could, dear," was the reply; "they were probably gathered just to look at. Yet 'May-apples,' which grow, you will remember, on the wild azalea and the swamp honeysuckle, are often eaten, and they are formed in the same way; so we will not be too positive about the oak-apples."

"What are oak-_galls_, Miss Harson?" asked Malcolm. "Are they the same as oak-apples?"

"Not quite the same," was the reply, although both are produced by the same insect. This is what one of our English books says of them: 'When the acorn itself is wounded, it becomes a kind of monstrosity, and remains on the stalk like an irregularly-shaped ball. It is called a "nut-gall," and is found princ.i.p.ally on a small oak, a native of the southern and central parts of Europe. All these oak-apples and nut-galls are of importance, but the latter more especially, and they form an important article of commerce. A substance called "gallic acid" resides in the oak; and when the puncture is made by the cynips, it flows in great abundance to the wound. Gallic acid is one of the ingredients used in dyeing stuffs and cloths, and therefore the supply yielded by the nut-gall is highly welcome. The nut-galls are carefully collected from the small oak on which they are found, the Pyreneean oak. It is easily known by the dense covering of down on the young leaves, that appear some weeks later than the leaves of the common oak. The galls are pounded and boiled, and into the infusion thus made the stuffs about to be dyed are dipped,'"

"I should think," said Clara, "that people would plant oak trees everywhere, when they are so useful. Is anything done with the bark?"

"Yes," said her governess; "the bark, which is very rough, is valuable for tanning leather and for medicine. The element which has the effect of turning raw hide or skin into leather is called _tannin_; it is also found in the bark of some other trees and in tropical plants."

"Didn't people use to wors.h.i.+p oak trees," asked Malcolm--"people who lived ever so long ago?"

"You are thinking of the Druids, who lived in old times in Britain and Gaul," replied Miss Harson, "and whose strange heathen rites were practiced in oak-groves; and they really did consider the tree sacred.

These Druids have left their traces in some parts of England and France in rows of huge stones set upright; and wherever an immense stone was found lying on two others, in the shape of a table, there had been a Druid altar, where the priest offered sacrifices, often of human beings.

So horrible may be a so-called religion that men themselves devise, and that has not come from the true G.o.d.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DRUIDIC SACRIFICE.]

"It was an article in the Druids' creed, and one to which they strictly adhered, that no temple with a covered roof was to be built in honor of the G.o.ds. All the places appointed for public wors.h.i.+p were in the open air, and generally on some eminence from which the moon and stars might be observed; for to the heavenly bodies much adoration was offered. But to afford shelter from wind or rain, and also to ensure privacy and shut out all external objects, the place fixed upon, either for teaching their disciples or for carrying out the rites of their idolatrous wors.h.i.+p, was in the recess of some grove or wood. An oak-grove was supposed to be the favorite of the G.o.ds whom they ignorantly wors.h.i.+ped, and therefore the Druids declared the oak to be a sacred tree. The Druid priest always bound a wreath of oak-leaves on his forehead before he would perform any religious ceremony. One of these ceremonies was to go in search of the mistletoe, which sometimes grows on the oak and was considered as sacred as the tree itself, being much used in their wors.h.i.+p. One priest would climb to the branch on which the misletoe was growing and cut it with a golden knife, while another priest stood below and held out his white robe to receive it.

"These sacred groves were all cut down by the Romans, who waged fierce war against the Druids, and nothing is left of them now but the circles of stones that formed their temples. At a place called Stonehenge, 'cromlechs,' or altar-tables, are still standing, and very ancient oaks stood in a circle round these stones for many centuries after the Druids were swept away."

"Miss Harson," said Clara when all had expressed their horror of the Druids and rejoiced that they _were_ swept away, "are there any oak trees in the Bible?"

"Look and see," was the reply; "and first you may find Genesis x.x.xv. 4."

Clara read:

"'And they gave unto Jacob all the strange G.o.ds which were in their hands, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the _oak_ which was by Shechem.'"

"In the eighth verse of the same chapter," said Miss Harson, "we read that Rebekah's nurse was buried under an oak at Bethel. We are told in the book of Joshua[2] that 'Joshua took a great stone and set it up there under an _oak_, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord;' and in Judges[3], 'There came an angel of the Lord and sat under an _oak_ which was in Ophrah.'--Malcolm, you may read Second Samuel, eighteenth chapter, ninth verse."

[2] Josh. xxiv. 26.

[3] Judg. vi. II.

Malcolm read:

"'And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great _oak_, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.'"

"Poor Absalom!" said Edith, softly. "Wasn't that dreadful?"

"Yes, dear," replied her governess, "it _was_ dreadful; but it is still more dreadful that Absalom was such a wicked man. In Isaiah[4] we read of the oaks of Bashan, that, like the cedars of Lebanon, were 'high and lifted up,' and the oaks of Bashan are mentioned again in Zechariah[5].

Several varieties of the oak are found in Palestine.

[4] Isa. ii. 13.

[5] Zech. xi. 2.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ABRAHAM'S OAK, NEAR HEBRON.]

"In his _Ride Through Palestine_, Dr. Dulles tells of a great oak near Hebron known as 'Abraham's oak,' supposed to occupy the ground where the patriarch pitched his tent under the oaks of Mamre. It is an aged tree, and a grand one. Here is a picture of it, from the _Ride_[6]. The crests and sides of the hills beyond the Jordan are still clothed, as in ancient times, with magnificent oaks.

[6] See page 85

"We get a good idea of the strength and durability of this wood from the fact that there is an old wooden church near Ongar, in Ess.e.x, the nave of which is composed of half logs of oak roughly fastened by wooden pegs. The ancient fabric dates back to the time of King Edmund, who was slain by the robber Leolf in the year A.D. 946. The oaken church was hurriedly put together--according to report--in order to make a temporary receptacle for the body of the murdered prince on its way to burial. Be that as it may, it was afterward used as a parish church, and, though the oaken logs are corroded by the weather, they are still sound, and, having been beaten by the storms of a thousand winters, bid fair to defy those of a thousand more."

"I should think, then," said Malcolm, "that people would always build their houses with oak if it lasts so long."

"Yet they do not do this even in England," was the reply, "where the trees grow to such an immense size and the ancient buildings still in existence prove the great endurance of the oak. Now brick and stone and iron are used, which outlast any wood. And now," continued Miss Harson, "I am going to tell you something about a foreign species of this tree which I am sure will surprise you. It is found in the South of Europe and in Algeria, and is called the _cork oak_."

"'The _cork_ oak'!" exclaimed Clara, quite as much surprised as she was expected to be. "Do the corks that come in bottles grow on it?"

"Not just in that shape, dear, but they are made from its bark. The outside bark, or _epidermis_, consists of a thin, transparent, tissue-like substance, which covers not only the bark, but the whole of the tree, stem, leaves and branches, and beneath the epidermis is found a layer of cellular tissue, generally green. It covers the trunk and branches, fills up the s.p.a.ces between the veins of the leaves and contains the sap, which flows in ca.n.a.ls arranged for it in the most beautiful and wonderful manner. In one species of oak this layer--which is called the _suber_--a.s.sumes a peculiar character and is of remarkable thickness. When the tree is some five years old, its whole energy is directed toward the increase of the suber. A ma.s.s of cells is formed with great rapidity, and layer upon layer is added, until that part of the trunk grows so unwieldy that it would crack and split of its own accord. But such a thing is rarely allowed to happen: the suber is of too much value to man. After it is taken from the tree and has undergone due preparation, it appears in our shops and houses under the name of _cork_"

"I should like to see how they get it," said Malcolm.

"The trunk is regularly marked around in deep cuts, which begin close to the branches and go down almost to the roots. A ladder is used to mount to the upper part of the trunk, and the cuts, or incisions, are made with a long knife or with an axe. Then they strip off the sheets of cork between the circles. This operation is a very delicate one, and requires much care and skill lest the inner part should be injured. If the operation is carried out successfully, the cork-like substance will grow again and become as abundant as ever.

"The next thing to be done to the pieces of bark is partially to burn, or char, them, and also to make them quite flat, as they come from the trunk in a rounded shape. The burning makes the pores close up, so that the liquid in a vessel for which it is used as a stopper cannot come through; and this is done over a brisk fire, in what is called a _burning-yard_. Another process, called _rounding_, removes every trace of the fire, unless the cork has been too much burned, and then, having already been flattened by the pressure of heavy stones, it is ready for the cork-maker, who cuts the material first into strips and then into squares according to the size of corks wanted.

"Cork is very light and elastic, and can be used successfully in contrivances for the rescue of men from the perils of the deep. The cork jacket and the lifeboat have been the means of saving many lives, for cork will float on the surface of the water and bear up the person wearing the jacket and the s.h.i.+pwrecked people in the lifeboat. 'The shallowness of the boat and the bulk of cork within allow but little room for water; so that even when filled it is in no danger of overturning or sinking, like other crafts. Also, the lifeboat can move across the waves with perfect safety, and can make its way from one object to another in a broken sea as easily as an ordinary boat can pa.s.s from one s.h.i.+p to another.'"

The children declared that the cork-oak was the best tree of all, but they agreed with their governess that the entire oak family was made up of grand and useful trees.

"Our American oaks," said Miss Harson, "are very handsome in autumn because of their brilliant foliage; the _scarlet oak_, which turns to a deep crimson and keeps its leaves longer than any of the other forest trees, is the most showy of the species. But we have no cork oaks, and no oaks that we know to be a thousand years old. There was once a famous oak in this country, called the 'Charter Oak,' which fell to the ground in August, 1856, before any of us were born. I wonder if you would like to hear the story about it?"

This question was thought extremely funny by three such devourers of stories as the little Kyles, and they eagerly a.s.sured their governess that they would like it.

"If that is really the case," continued Miss Harson, smiling at the excited faces, "I must tell you the history of

"THE CHARTER OAK.

"This tree grew in Hartford, Connecticut, and it is said that before the English governor Wyllis went there to live his steward, whom he had sent on before to get a house ready for him, came near cutting down this very oak. He was clearing away the trees around it on the hillside when a party of Indians appeared and begged him to leave that particular tree, because, they said, 'it had been the guide of their ancestors for centuries.' So the oak was spared; even then it was old and hollow.

"King Charles II. granted the people of Connecticut a very liberal charter of rights, which was publicly read in the a.s.sembly at Hartford and declared to belong for ever to them and their successors. A committee was appointed to take charge of it, under a solemn oath that they would preserve this palladium of the rights of the people.