CHAPTER III.
_Of the Oak._ 1.

_Robur_, the oak; I have sometimes consider'd it very seriously, what should move _Pliny_ to make a whole chapter of one only line, which is less than the argument alone of most of the rest in his huge volume: but the weightiness of the matter does worthily excuse him, who is not wont to spare his words, or his reader.

_Glandiferi maxime generis omnes, quibus honos apud Romanos perpetuus._ "Mast-bearing-trees were principally those which the Romans held in chiefest repute," lib.

16.
cap.3.And in the following where he treats of chaplets, and the dignity of the civic coronet; it might be compos'd of the leaves or branches of any oak, provided it were a bearing tree, and had acorns upon it, and was (as{31:1} _Macrobius_ tells us).

Recorded among the _felices arbores_; but this +phyllinon stephanon+ was interwoven, and twisted with thorns and briars; and the garland carried to usher the bride to her husband's house, intimating that happy state was not exempt from its pungencies and cares.