356 WOOD-SCENERY IN WINTER. 



There are certain trees, however, which are almost ugly 

 in winter, though very beautiful in their summer dress. 

 We see nothing attractive in the horse-chestnut, the su- 

 mach, the catalpa, and the ash, in their denuded state, when 

 the coarseness and deformity of their spray become their 

 salient points. Of these the horse-chestnut and the 

 catalpa are not surpassed in beauty when they are in 

 flower, nor the sumach in its autumnal dress, nor the ash 

 either in summer or autumn. There is as great a variety 

 in the style of the frame and framework of different trees 

 as in the forms and colors of their leaves and flowers. 

 Indeed, in some respects, trees are a more interesting study 

 in their denuded state than when dressed in foliage. In 

 this condition single trees become more special objects of 

 attention than assemblages.- Yet it is in winter that we 

 perceive to the best advantage the characters of a forest 

 vista. As we pass under the interlacing branches of the 

 trees, we observe that peculiar arch formed by the meet- 

 ing and contact of those on opposite sides of an avenue. 

 We see this appearance only in a wide avenue, where the 

 trees have grown since it was laid out. In the pathless 

 wood, or in a path made through the forest after the trees 

 have attained maturity, they have no well-formed lateral 

 branches, and display above our heads only a formless 

 canopy. 



We may observe in the spray of different trees an in- 

 variable correspondence with some of their other charac- 

 ters. Nut-bearers, for example, have a coarser spray than 

 small seed-bearers ; trees with large or compound leaves, 

 than those with small or simple foliage; and trees with 

 opposite, than those with alternate branches. Hence the 

 oak and the hickory have a coarser spray than the birch 

 and the elm, and the large-leaved poplar than the slender- 

 leaved willow ; the ash, with compound leaves, than the 

 maple with simple leaves, though both have opposite 



