CHAPTER IX 

 THE BEAUTIFUL IN A TREE* 



IN what does the beauty of a tree consist? We mean of 

 course what may strictly be called an ornamental 

 tree, not a tree planted for its fruit in the orchard, or 

 growing for timber in the forest, but standing alone in the 

 lawn or meadow, growing in groups in the pleasure ground, 

 overarching the roadside, or bordering some stately avenue. 

 Is it not, first of all, that such a tree, standing where it can 

 grow untouched, and develop itself on all sides, is one of the 

 finest pictures of symmetry and proportion that the eye 

 can anywhere meet with? The tree may be young, or it 

 may be old, but if left to nature, it is sure to grow into 

 some form that courts the eye and satisfies it. It may 

 branch out boldly and grandly, like the oak; its top may 

 be broad and stately, like the chestnut, or drooping and 

 elegant, like the elm, or delicate and airy like the birch, but 

 it is sure to grow into the type form, either beautiful or 

 picturesque, that nature stamped upon its species, and 

 which is the highest beauty that such tree can possess. 

 It is true that nature plants some trees, like the fir and 

 pine, in the fissures of the rock and on the edge of the 

 precipice; that she twists their boughs and gnarls their 

 stems by storms and tempests thereby adding to their 

 picturesque power in sublime and grand scenery; but as 

 a general truth, it may be clearly stated that the beautiful 

 in a tree of any kind is never so fully developed as when, in 

 a genial soil and climate, it stands quite alone, stretching 

 its boughs upward freely to the sky and outward to the 

 breeze and even downward towards the earth, almost touch- 

 ing it with their graceful sweep, till only a glimpse of the 



* Original date of February, 1851. 

 162 



