u will prefer it green, as is the willow, I
believe.

One day a walk about Savannah, which city has many splendid live-oaks
in its parks and squares, involved me in a sudden shower, when, presto!
the weeping willow of the North was reincarnated before my eyes, for the
falling rain turned the dingy moss pendants of the live-oak to the
whitish green that makes the willow such a delightful color-note in
early spring. I have been thankful often for that shower, for it gave a
better feeling about the live-oak, and made me admire the weeping
willow.

The live-oak, by the way, has a leaf very little like the typical
oak--it is elliptical in shape and smooth in outline. The curious
parasitic moss that so frequently covers the tree obscures the really
handsome foliage.

The English Oak, grand tree that it is, grows well in America, as
everything English should by right, and there are fine trees of this
_Quercus Robur_ on Long Island. The acorns are of unusual elegance, as
the photograph which shows them will prove.

The red oak, the black oak, the scarlet oak, all splendid forest trees
of the Northeast, are in the group of confusion that can be readily
separated only by the timber-cruiser, who knows every tree in the
forest for its economic value, or by the botanist, with his limp-bound
Gray's Manual in hand. I confess to bewilderment in five minutes after
the differences have been explained to me, and I enjoyed, not long ago,
the confusion of a skilful nurseryman who was endeavoring to show me his
young trees of red oak which the label proved to be scarlet! But the
splendidly effective trees themselves can be fully appreciated, and the
distinctions will appear as one studies carefully the features of these
living gifts of nature's greenness. The trees wait on one, and once the
habit of appreciation and investigation is formed, each walk afield, in
forest or park, leads to the acquirement of some new bit of tree-lore,
that becomes more precious and delightful as it is passed on and
commented upon in association with some other member of the happily
growing fraternity of nature-lovers.

[Illustration: Acorns of the English oak]

These oak notes are not intended to be complete, but only to suggest
some points for investigation and appreciation to my fellows in the
brotherhood. I have never walked between Trenton and New York, and
therefore never made the desired acquaintance with the scrub-oaks along
the way. Nor have I di