FOEMS AND EXPRESSION OF TREES. 



THE different forms of trees, and their endless variety 

 of foliage and spray, have, from the earliest times, been 

 favorite studies of the painter and the naturalist. Not 

 only has each species certain distinguishing marks, but 

 their specific characters are greatly modified in individual 

 trees. The Psalmist compares a godly man to a tree 

 that 'is planted by rivers of water, whose leaf shall not 

 wither, seeing in the stateliness and beauty of such a 

 tree an emblem of the noble virtues of the human heart. 

 Trees are distinguished by their grandeur or their ele- 

 gance, by their primness or their grace, by the stiffness of 

 their leaves and branches or by their waving and tremu- 

 lous motions. Some stand forth as if in defiance of 

 the wind and the tempest; others, with long drooping 

 branches, find security in bending to the gale, like the 

 slender herbs in the meadow. 



Trees are generally classed as landscape ornaments, 

 according to their general outlines. " Some trees ascend 

 vertically," says St. Pierre, "and having arrived at a 

 certain height, in an air perfectly unobstructed, fork 

 off in various tiers, and send out their branches hori- 

 zontally, like an apple-tree; or incline them towards the 

 earth, like a fir ; or hollow them in the form of a cup, 

 like the sassafras ; or round them into the shape of a 

 mushroom, like the pine ; or straighten them into a pyra- 

 mid, like the poplar; or roll them as wool upon the 

 distaff, like the cypress; or suffer them to float at the 

 discretion of the winds, like the birch." These are the 



