180 In Touch with Nature. 



be able to throw oneself on a moss-carpeted sand 

 dune and gaze upward at such a tree is abundant 

 recompense for miles of weary walking. 



But this little nook was not the whole wild- 

 wood, and every tree was worthy of description. 

 I would that I could write the history of a tree : 

 the stories of these hollies would pass for fairy 

 tales. 



Irregularities in tree-growth are nowhere un- 

 usual features of a forest, but here the hollies 

 are, or have been, on the lookout to break away 

 from all restraint and become as wayward as pos- 

 sible. Here is one that has twirled about until 

 now the trunk is a gigantic corkscrew ; and not 

 far off, another and larger tree has branched some 

 ten feet from the ground, and then the two main 

 divisions of the trunk have been reunited. A 

 modification of this, where a stout limb has re- 

 turned to the parent stem and re-entered, making 

 "jug-handles," is a common occurrence, and, more 

 marvellous still, a venerable cedar has some of its 

 outreaching branches passing not merely into, but 

 entirely through huge hollies that stand near by. 

 Evidently the cedar here is the older tree and the 



