290 



A C O M r A R I S O N OF THE 



Lights and Shadows. — The quality of trees, which is least 

 observed except by painters, and yet one which has inuch to do 

 with their expression, and our preferences for one or another sort, 

 is their manner of reflecting the light in masses, so that it is 

 brought into high relief by the dark shade of openings in the 

 foliage, against w'hich the lights are contrasted. If the reader will 

 study trees, he will see that the lines of light and shade in the 

 Lombardy poplar. Fig. 80, are nearly vertical, and in narrow strips, 

 Fig. 80. in harmony with the outlines of the tree, while in the 

 balsam fir and the beech. Fig. 81, they are in nearly hori- 

 zontal layers, and looking as though the tree had been 

 built up in stratas. Most of the arbor-vitae family grovr 

 so compact that their shadow^s, seen at a little distance, 

 are much like those of solid bodies, the openings in their 

 spray being so small, that their surfaces are little broken 

 by shadows. Young apple, maple, and chestnut trees, 

 present, when young, such unbroken surfaces of leaves, 

 \h that it is proper to say of them, then, that they have in- 

 " sipid or unformed characters. Compare the cut of the 

 young apple. Fig. 82, with an old tree. Fig. 83, or the 

 ^ young maple. Fig. 84, with the mature one. Fig. 85, and 

 it will be seen that not merely their outlines have changed with 

 age, but that there are bolder shadows, and consequently more 

 striking lights in the masses of their foliage. 

 The native chestnut {Castanca vesca) ex- 

 hibits a much more radical change from 

 youth to age in its shadows. When young 

 it resembles in form the young apple tree ; 

 but when middle-aged, it breaks up into 

 broader masses than any other native tree, 

 except the white oak, which in age it most 

 resembles. Fig. 105 shows its characteristic 

 break of light and shadow. It will be seen 

 that it is neither in vertical nor horizontal lines, but quite irregular, 

 and in large, instead of small masses. Herein consists one of the 

 characteristics that distinguish majestic, or grand, from simply beau- 

 tiful trees. The sugar maple, as shown in Fig. 85, is broken into 



Fig. 81. 



