TEEE FORMS. 21 



The saplings of most trees foreshadow the charac- 

 ters which become pronounced as age creeps 

 on. The stem of the young Oak is often twisted ; 

 its bark is grey in colour, and somewhat rough. 

 Its buds are irregularly placed along the branches, 

 the spray being rather abundant but stout, and 

 the buds not large but prominent; the smaller 

 branches growing from each other at obtuse angles 

 and, twisting picturesquely, showing thus early, 

 though remotely, the ruggedness of the mature 

 tree. These characters are continued and main- 

 tained during the middle age of the Oak, and empha- 

 sized as it approaches old age and decay. Mr. 

 Short's drawing of the Oak, in the landscape en- 

 graving facing page 16, happily conveys the picture 

 of the tree in its prime. The powerful yet rugged 

 trunk, the stalwart limbs, the irregular forking 

 now acute, now rectangular of its branches, the 

 twisting yet robustness of the spray, are all excel- 

 lently shown. In the picture, facing page 32, of a 

 dead Oak stump,' the artist has, with equal truth- 

 fulness, seized the still salient features, strong, so 

 to speak, in death. How well this drawing exhibits 

 the grim tenacity of this sylvan giant, which 



