292 



A COMPARISON OF THE 



FIG. 86. 



FIG. 87. 



from the ground. The linden tree when old, and the common 

 dog-wood (Cornus florida), have similar lines of shadows. 



If we classify trees by their surface lights and shadows alone, 

 they will divide into three classes, viz: first, 

 those whose lights and shadows fall in lines 

 approaching the vertical ; second, those which 

 divide into strata horizontally ; third, those 

 which break into irregular masses. The Lom- 

 bardy poplar will be the type of the former ; the 

 common beech, Fig. 88, of the second : and the 

 white oak of the latter. Most evergreen trees 

 belong to the second group. The first class 

 comprises a comparatively small number of 

 trees, but many which belong to one of the last two groups at 

 maturity, are members of the first when young. 



The cedar of Lebanon is the most remarkable of trees in the 

 second class. It is the embodiment of majesty 

 in its class, as the oak of the third class. Of our 

 native trees, the white pine is the grandest type 

 among evergreens east of the Rocky Mountains, 

 of trees with stratified shadows, as the beech is 

 among deciduous trees. The pin oak is a fa- 

 miliar example of stratified foliage. Its foliage 

 layers are as distinctly marked as those of the 

 beech, but its branches droop more ; and are so twiggy, thorny, and 

 inter-tangled, that its expression is ruder and its shadows less noble 

 than those of the pine or beech. The Nor- 

 way spruce and the hemlock, though the 

 small spray falls with plume-like grace, and 

 the branches droop from the trunk, divide 

 into masses of light and shadow in nearly 

 horizontal lines. All the trees which main- 

 tain this stratified character of shadows 

 have more sameness of outline and monot- 

 ony of expression than those which break 

 into larger and irregular . masses. The 

 weeping willow, when full grown, with all its delicacy of foliage and 



Fro. 



