USES OF THE FORESTS. 9 



buffs and yellows of the birches, give place at last to the full 

 scarlets, yellows and browns of the oaks, many of whose leaves 

 remain adhering through the snows of winter. These and forty 

 other trees, and twice as many shrubs, furnish as inexhaustible a 

 store- house of colors as they do of shape and foliage. It would 

 be endless to speak of the adjuncts of trees, the climbing shrubs, 

 the Virginia creeper, so remarkable for the richness of its fading 

 colors, the Roxbury wax-work, for its berries, the ivy, the vine 

 and the climbers which naturally attach themselves to our trees, 

 and which may be trained upon them in cultivation ; the lichens 

 which cloud and paint their trunks with touches of green and 

 yellow, white and brown, and the mosses of brilliant green 

 or purple velvet which grow about their base. All these are 

 studies for the landscape gardener, and their daily observation 

 will add immeasurably to the pleasure of the contemplative 

 man who dwells in or traverses the country in autumn with 

 the eye of a painter, and the feelings of a poet, or with those 

 of a worshipper of the Author of these beauties. 



It is surprising how small is the number of trees necessary 

 to produce a striking effect. Ten or twelve trees, fortunately or 

 skilfully disposed on the sides or brow of a hill, are often suffi- 

 cient to give it an air of richness harmonizing perfectly with a 

 highly cultivated country. The happy effect of three or four 

 trees on an island in Boston harbor has been already mentioned ; 

 a single one on Pettick's Island gives an agreeable relief to the 

 eye. A single tree by a farmer's house protects it, and gives it 

 a desirable air of seclusion and rest ; as if it must be the resi- 

 dence of peace and contentment. One almost covets a house 

 so pleasantly sheltered. While an unprotected, solitary house 

 seems to shiver in the north wind, and we involuntarily wish 

 for the inhabitants a more cheerful home. Why should not at 

 least one tree be found growing near the dwelling of every man, 

 even the poorest and humblest? 



Nothing can better illustrate the variety of our forest trees, 

 compared with the European, than a criticism of the learned 

 Hallam upon a passage in Spencer's Fairy Queen. It is that 

 in the first book where a shady grove is described, in which the 

 knight and lady take refuge. The critic objects " to the stanza 

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