38 SYLVAN WINTER. 



The ramification of a finely-grown Field Maple 

 (page 112) is very complex, and the whole tree is 

 exceedingly picturesque. The rough-barked trunk, 

 widened at its base, where it holds the ground, 

 rises, gradually tapering, by a series of twists like 

 the meandering of a river through rocky country. 

 It commences to branch ordinarily at some six 

 feet from the ground, and the branches (some- 

 times large enough to be called limbs) take 

 different directions. If of large size, and partaking 

 of the character and substance of the trunk, the 

 limbs will take an upward direction ; if branches 

 only, they will often shoot out, like those of the 

 Oak, almost at right angles from the stem ; but 

 whether the direction be parallel or horizontal, 

 the branches are always of considerable length by 

 comparison with the trunk, and proceed with 

 twists and forks and contortions. From the 

 larger branches, smaller ones, equally twisted and 

 bent, are given off; and from these, twigs of varying 

 length, which in turn break into small short spray 

 half an inch to two or three inches in length the 

 spray, like the rest of the ramification, being bent, 

 twisted, and contorted. Thus the whole of the 



