CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 279 



of a rich lawn. There are others which no care in culture will 

 make ornaments m " the best society." 



Whoever studies the varied beauties of trees will find that 

 they i^ossess almost a human interest, and their features will 

 reveal varieties of expression, and charms of character, that dull 

 observers cannot imagine. 



" The poplars shiver, the pine trees moan.' 



The differences between a Lombardy poplar, an oak, and a 

 weeping willow are so striking that the most careless eye cannot 

 mistake one for the other. The poplar, tall, slender, rigid, is a 

 type of formality ; the oak, broad, massy, rugged-limbed, has ever 

 been a symbol of strength, majesty, and protection ; and the willow, 

 also broad and massy, but so fringed all over with pensile-spray 

 that its majesty is forgotten in the exquisite grace of its movement, 

 is, to the oak, as the fullness and grace of a noble woman to the 

 robust strength of man. 



The more obvious peculiarities and diversities of trees we shall 

 endeavor to present from an aesthetic, rather than a botanist's 

 point of view ; not in the interest of science, or of pecuniary utili- 

 tarianism, but so as to aid the student of nature to appreciate their 

 beauties ; appealing simply to that love of the beautiful in nature 

 which hungers in the eyes of all good people. The delightful 

 science of botany is not likely to be over-estimated, but its study 

 is no more Iiecessary to the appreciation of trees than the study 

 of the chemistry of the air, or the jnatomy of the ear, to the lover 

 of music. 



What are the essential beauties of trees ? 



We shall name first that most essential quality of all beauty — 



The Beauty of Health. — No tree has the highest beauty of 

 its type without the appearance, in its whole bearing, of robust 

 vigor. There may be peculiar charms in the decay of an old trunk, 

 or the eccentric habit of some stunted specimen, which ministers to 

 a love of the picturesque ; but true beauty and health are as in- 

 separable in trees, as in men and women. Luxuriant vigor is, then, 

 the essential condition of all beautiful trees. Thriftiness cannot 



