Every oak-tree teems with life. Of insects alone five hundred species
look mainly to the oak for support. When the tree grows to the age
of fruitfulness--when sixty or seventy years have passed over its
head--then its population is increased tenfold. Here is a reason for
the incredible supplies of fruit--the great majority of the acorns
go to support the pensioners, and thousands must be sown if one is to
have a chance to develop into a seedling. Squirrels come to feast and
hide the acorns as they hide nuts; the dormice come; human children
come with sacks for the sake of the pigs at home; pheasants feast on
the ground; rooks, more wary, amid the branches; hungry jays warn
hungry wood-pigeons when the keeper approaches. To the animals, birds,
and insects are added the parasite plants, fungi flourishing where a
broken branch rots, lichens covering the bark, on the topmost bough the
mistletoe.
* * * * *