But prouder yet its glories shine, It floats upon the heaving brine, And braves the bursting storm. O! then, triumphant in its might, It seems, in Heaven's approving sight, On earth the forest's honoured king! Who will, another tree may sing, Old England's Oak for me! BERNARD BARTON. THE MARINERS OF ENGLAND. YE mariners of England, Who guard our native seas, Who for these thousand years have braved The battle and the breeze, Your glorious standard launch again, And match another foe, And sweep through the deep While the stormy tempests blow; While the battle rages long and loud, And the stormy tempests blow. The spirits of your fathers Will start from every wave! As ye sweep through the deep, While the stormy winds do blow; While the battle rages long and loud, And the stormy tempests blow. Britannia needs no bulwarks, No towers along the steep; Her march is o'er the mountain-waves, With thunders from her native oak, As they roar on the shore, When the stormy tempests blow; The meteor-flag of England Till danger's troubled night depart, When the storm has ceased to blow ; CAMPBELL. THE PINE. THE pine claims, next to the oak, the second place among timber-trees. It is very abundant, its growth is comparatively rapid, and its wood is straight, elastic, and easily worked. As the oak is the chief timber in building ships for the sea, pine is the principal one in the construction of houses upon land. It is "the builder's timber." The distinct species of pines mentioned by botanists are about twenty-one; but the best known are the Scotch fir, the silver-fir, the larch, the Norway spruce-fir, and the cedar of Lebanon. The Scotch fir, or wild pine, is very generally diffused, being found in all the northern regions, and in elevated ones considerably to the south. The timber which it produces is called red deal or yellow deal, according to the colour; and as deals are the form in which it is often imported from Norway and the Baltic, the word deal has become the common name for all sorts of pine timber. Excepting cedar and larch, it produces tougher and more durable timber than any of the pines. It is good in proportion to the slowness of its growth; and it is best in cold situations and on light soils, and when planted by nature. The silver-fir, so called from two lines of white on the under side of the leaves, is a majestic tree, and grows with great rapidity. It is a native of the south of Europe and the Levant, the silver-firs upon Mount Olympus being the most magnificent trees in that country. Requiring a richer soil and a warmer climate than the pine and the larch, it cannot be well cultivated in bleak situations. Its timber is softer and less durable than that of either of them, and therefore it is not so well adapted for general purposes: but its lightness renders it a very fit material for boats; and planks made of it are said to have the property of not shrinking. It is used in this country chiefly as an ornamental tree. The larch is, after the common pine, the most valuable of all the tribe. Though a native of the Alps and Apennines, it thrives uncommonly well in Britain. Indeed, it grows in almost every soil and situation. In the south it attains to an immense height; and even in the plantations of the Duke of Atholl, at Dunkeld in Perthshire, some larches are at least 100 feet high. Larches were first brought to this country in flower-pots as rarities; but they are now extensively planted, especially in Scotland; and the success in cultivating them is far greater and far more uniform than in the case of any other tree not a native of the country. Larch timber is preferable to every other for many purposes. It is very tough and compact, and it approaches nearly to being proof, not only against water, but against fire. If the principal beams of houses were made of it, fires would be not only less frequent, but less destructive; for before a larch beam be even charred on the surface, a beam of pine or of dry oak will be in a blaze. Larch, however, is heavier to transport, and also much harder to work, than pine; and as these circumstances are against the profits of the builder, they prevent the general use of this most safe and durable timber. The Venetian houses constructed of it show no symptoms of decay; and the complete preservation of some of the finest paintings of F the great masters of Italy, is, in some respects, owing to the panels of larch on which they are executed. The Norway spruce-fir is the loftiest of the pine tribe in Europe. In Norway it is often found from 150 to 200 feet in height. It grows very rapidly, forms excellent shelter, and has a majestic appearance. But it is more generally introduced than it deserves; for the timber is soft and far from durable. Its chief use is for masts to large ships. The masts of our men-of-war are brought principally from Riga. The cedar of Lebanon would, if the rapidity of its growth were at all correspondent with its other qualities, be the most valuable tree in the forest. Its resistance to absolute wear is not indeed equal to that of the oak, but it is so bitter that no insect will touch it, and it seems to be proof against Time himself. Some of the most celebrated erections of antiquity, accordingly, were constructed of this tree. Solomon's temple is a wellknown example, and so is the palace of cedar which the same monarch built in the forest of Lebanon. Ancient writers notice that the ships of Sesostris, the Egyptian conqueror, one of them 280 cubits long, were formed of this timber, as was also the gigantic statue of Diana in the temple of Ephesus. In addition to the durability of its timber, the cedar is, in its appearance, the most majestic of trees, and when it stands alone in a situation worthy of it, it is hardly possible to conceive a finer vegetable ornament. Its height in this country has seldom equalled the taller of the larches; but the very air of the tree impresses one with the idea of its comparative immortality. The description of this tree by the prophet Ezekiel is fine and true:-" Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and of an high stature; his top was among the thick boughs. His boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long. The fir-trees were not like his boughs, nor the chesnuttrees like his branches, nor any tree in the garden of God like unto him in beauty." Lib. of Entertaining Knowledge. THE PALM-TREE, IT waved not through an Eastern sky, It was not fanned by southern breeze But fair the exiled Palm-tree grew Strange looked it there!-the willow streamed There came an eve of festal hours- But one, a lone one, 'midst the throng, And slowly, sadly, moved his plumes, To him, to him its rustling spoke, |