206 SCIENCE OF THE STUDY OF TREES. PART II. 
these cases, the artist must supply the shade, from his knowledge of the manner 
in which it is supplied by the sun when it shines. 
The artist having chosen his tree, and fixed his chair at the proper distance, 
the next step is, to measure or estimate its height. In the case of young trees, 
this is easily done by a 10-ft. rod, which, added to the height of a man and the 
length of his arm stretched above his head, will give 18 ft. ; which will cover 
the height of most trees of ten years’ growth. In the case of old trees, the 
height may be ascertained by a common quadrant, by a graduated quadrant, 
or, which in practice, and more especially when trees are crowded together, 
will be found the best of all modes, by pushing up the side of the trunk a 
series of rods connected one with the other by small tin tubes. This, and 
various other modes, will be found described in Gard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 548. ; 
and the subject will be again adverted to when treating of useful plantations, 
and felling timber, in Part IV. of this Encyclopedia. 
The height of the tree to be drawn being measured, and supposing it te be 
19 ft. 7 in., then nineteen divisions and a half of the scale are to be counted 
down from the top of the parallelogram, and a slight line drawn across, as at 
aa,in fig.2. An estimate is next to be made of the diameter of the space 
covered by the branches, and also of the extent of the branches on each side 
of the tree. If the branches extend nearly to an equal distance on each side 
of the trunk, then all that is necessary is, to make a mark in the centre of the 
horizontal line a a, at 6, in order to indicate the centre of the trunk. If, on 
the other hand, the branches extend much more on one side than on the 
other, then the first step is, to set off the total diameter, so as to reach within 
equal distances of each side of the page, as at cc, in fig. 2.; and supposing 
the trunk to be one eighth nearer on one side than the other, then the place for 
its centre may be indicated at d on the base line ee. 
The next step is one of some importance. The artist should go up close 
to the tree, examine its leaves, and make sketches of an individual leaf, and 
of a cluster of leaves, both to a larger scale than that to which the tree is to 
be drawn, and then to the same scale to which the tree is to be drawn. 
These sketches are merely to be considered as studies made with a view of 
acquiring what artists call the touch, or ultimate character of form, with 
which the tree is to be clothed. As all the masses of light and shade, and 
all the various forms which a tree clothed with its leaves presents in nature, 
result from the various disposition of one form of leaf; so, in a picture, all 
the imitations of these are formed by the repetition of one character of 
touch. Sometimes the leaves on the tree, and the touches in the picture, are 
so crowded as almost to obliterate each other; at other times in,both they 
are more distinct, and the form of the leaf, and the character of the touch, 
may be more clearly recognised. In densely clothed trees, the form of the 
leaf, and the character of the touch, are most discernible at the extremities 
of the branches ; in thinly clothed trees they are discernible throughout. 
The young artist, however, must not suppose, from all this, that to repre- 
sent a tree it is only necessary to know the form of its leaf and of its touch ; 
neither must he suppose that, in making out the details of the tufting or 
subordinate masses of a tree, he is merely to repeat leaf after leaf : on the 
contrary, having a knowledge of the forms of the leaves when examined 
singly, and of their clustering as exhibited on the points of the branches in 
the general outline of the tree when examined singly, and also of the tufting, 
or subordinate masses, of the tree when examined singly, he must copy from 
nature, almost without reference to his knowledge of these details ; lest, instead 
of making a picture of the tree as it is in nature, he should portray only his own 
ideas of how a tree ought to be drawn. We repeat, that he cannot too closely 
copy nature, and this without reference to any rules; calling to his assistance 
his technical knowledge of the leaves, of the touch, and of the character of 
tufting, only where he feels the want of it, to assist him where the appearance 
of nature may be of doubtful expression. In this way a man writes on any 
subject, without continually thinking of grammar or syntax; but when he 
