The oak is not only one of the grandest and most picturesque objects as a single tree upon a lawn, but it is equally unrivalled for groups and masses. There is a breadth about the lights and shadows reflected and embosomed in its foliage, a singular freedom and boldness in its outline, and a pleasing richness and intricacy in its huge ramification of branch and limb, that render it highly adapted to these purposes. Some trees, as the willow or the spiry poplar, though pleasing singly, are monotonous to the last degree when planted in quantities. Not so, however, with the oak, as there is no tree, when forming a wood entirely by itself, which affords so great a variety of form and disposition, light and shade, symmetry and irregularity, as this king of the forests.
