30 SYLVAN WINTER. 



of the Oak, whilst the bark not only on the bole 

 limbs and larger branches, but upon the smaller 

 ones, is split and cracked and flaked in a way 

 that gives it an eminently picturesque appearance. 

 We must add to our 'own remarks Gilpin's 

 opinion of the tree. He says that ' the Elm 

 naturally grows upright, and when it meets with 

 a soil it loves, rises higher than the generality of 

 trees ; and after it has assumed the dignity and 

 hoary roughness of age, few of its forest brethren 

 (though, properly speaking, it is not a forester) 

 excel it in grandeur and beauty.' 



The beauty and gracefulness of the Birch, 

 (page 64), are very striking, and in the whole 

 forest there is probably no tree whose delicacy 

 of form is equal to that of Betula alia. The 

 purple spray and the curious whiteness (accom- 

 panied sometimes by splashes of golden lichen 

 and spots of brown) of the bole are at once the 

 most striking peculiarity of this tree, though bole 

 the Birch can scarcely be said to have ; for the 

 entire stem, from base to apex, is so evenly 

 graded as to leave no line where the bole may be 

 said to end, and the upper part of the stem to begin. 



