TREES IN THE EARLY SUMMER LANDSCAPE 225 



fects of all are produced by the small pale leaves of the 

 willow, which form fluffy cloudlike masses of green reposing 

 by the stream-side. There are other, stricter-growing 

 species of willow, whose shining leaves sparkle brightly in the 

 sunlight. Wind changes the color of certain foliage masses, 

 such as those of the white oak tribe, by overturning the 

 leaves and exposing to view their paler under surfaces. It 

 takes a hard wind to overturn the leaves of the speckled 

 alder, but when overturned, they entirely change the aspect 

 of the alder thicket. 



Endless are the tints of green, also, in the trees of the land- 

 scape, ranging from the light silvery green of the white 

 willow to the heavy somber green of the white pine. Nature 

 uses other colors sparingly, only here and there lighting up 

 the edge with a show of flowers, as with masses of Judas- 

 trees, or flowering dogwood, or hawthorn. 



Nature adorns every species of tree with its own graces of 

 form and color. None is like any other. Each looks best 

 where it grows best; for the handsome tree is, indeed, the 

 tree that is well grown. 



When we walk beneath the trees of a forest cover, the 

 beauty of their foliage is lost on us, we are such pygmies, 

 walking beneath it : we must climb to some point of outlook 

 to see it. But when the wood is cleft, as by a stream, the 

 leafage comes down softly to the ground in all its beauty. 

 Viewing a steeply-rising wooded slope from the vantage 

 of the opposite bank, we may see how nature uses trees. 

 She plants them in masses, using a few of the best kinds in 

 vast numbers, and scattering the others thickly, but not too 

 thickly, about the edges. Always there is enough variety 

 to maintain our interest, and enough repetition of like 

 combinations to avoid weariness. Always there are vines 

 about the edges for drapery; and in the openings, shrubs 

 and herbage mask all the angles and cluster about well- 



