63 RURAL MICHIGAN 



which seemed to realize that they were not natives 

 and were in strange company for they grew in 

 groups with branches fraternally interplaced." ^ 



Of the forest of the valley of the Shiawassee 

 Eiver, Bela Hubbard wrote: "The woods of this 

 part of ]\Iichigan comprised a very mingled growth. 

 Oaks, not gnarled and spreading, as in the more 

 open lands, but at once massive and tall, and of 

 centuries' age; the elm, that most graceful and 

 majestic of trees of any land; the tulip, or white- 

 wood, magnificent in size and height above even the 

 Titans of the forest; the broad and green-leaved 

 linden; the clean-bodied beech; the saccharine 

 maples, so superb in their autumnal dresses — dyed, 

 like Joseph's coat of many colors; the giant syca- 

 more, ghost-like with its white, naked limbs — these 

 are the common habitants of the forest. We have 

 reached, too, the latitude of the evergreens, which 

 from hence northward to the farthest limits, be- 

 came a distinguishing feature of the Michigan forest, 

 imparting to them a more wonderful variety and 

 majesty. Many a towering pine, 150 feet in height, 

 now began to lift its head above its fellow in- 

 habiters, green through youth and age, through \er- 

 dure and frost. In many places the desert gloom 

 was deepened by the dense and somber shade of 

 hemlocks, which bent their graceful spray to the 

 earth, and almost shut out the light of day. We 

 took the measure of a white oak that stood at the 

 border of the timbered land and the openings. It 

 'Ibid., XXXVIII, 664. 



