For a long time, metaphors have played an important role in depicting language history. In this study, we contrast early metaphors on language history, such as the family tree or the wave model, with recent metaphors that were popularized after the quantitative turn, such as forests of trees or phylogenetic networks. Speculating about metaphors which could play a more important role in the future, we conclude that a vivid discussion about the usefulness and the concrete implications of metaphors plays an important role for the development of models for language history in historical linguistics.