half a flight-shot from the king's oak

There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.[…]Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place. Pushing men hustle each other at the windows of the purser's office, under pretence of expecting letters or despatching telegrams.

So, little by little, youth loosens the hard carapace of confining custom their elders have built over the human heart.

EPIPHYLLOSPERMOUS PLANTS, so called by the old botanists, because they bore their seed upon the back of their leaves. They are what have more recently been called dorsiferous ferns.