148 SYLVAN WINTER. 



incrusted spray will be noted in our illustration. 

 Very pretty is the spray of the Beech, but there 

 is a certain angularity about the method of its 

 production ; the twig in continuing its course from 

 each node, or point of leaf-origin, does so at a 

 slight (very broad) angle, so that a twisting or 

 symmetrically zigzag appearance is given to the 

 spray, looked at as a whole. Gilpin remarks 

 that, f the spray of the Beech observes the same 

 kind of alternacy as that of the Elm; but it 

 shoots in angles still more acute, the distance 

 between each twig is wider, and it forms a kind 

 of zigzag course. We esteem the Beech also in 

 some degree a pendent tree as well as the Ash ; 

 but there is a wide difference between them. The 

 Ash is a light, airy tree, and its spray hangs 

 in elegant loose foliage; but the hanging spray 

 of the Beech, in old trees especially, is often 

 twisted and intermingled disagreeably, and has a 

 perplexed, matted appearance. The whole tree 

 gives us something of the idea of an entangled 

 head of bushy hair, from which, here and there, 

 hangs a disorderly lock ; while the spray of the 

 Ash, like hair neither neglected nor finically nice, 



