192 PKOSERI'INA. 



care, I was not altogether clear-headed myself about 

 the way in which the chequering was done : nor 

 until Fors to-day brought me to the house of one 

 of my father's friends at Carshalton, and gave me 

 three birch stems to look at just outside the 

 window, did I perceive it to be a primal question 

 about them, what it is that blanches that dainty dress 

 of theirs, or, anticipatorily, weaves. What difference 

 is there between the making of the corky excrescence 

 of other trees, and of this almost transparent fine 

 white linen ? I perceive that the older it is, within 

 limits, the finer and whiter ; hoary tissue, instead of 

 hoary air — honouring the tree's aged body ; the 

 outer sprays have no silvery light on their youth. 

 Does the membrane thin itself into whiteness merely 

 by stretching, or produce an outer film of new 

 substance ?* 



4. And secondly, this investiture, why is it trans- 

 verse to the trunk, — swathing it, as it were, in 

 bands ? Above all, — when it breaks, — why does it 

 break round the tree instead of down ? All other 

 bark breaks as anything would, naturally, round a 

 swelling rod, but this, as if the stem were growing 

 longer ; until, indeed, it reaches farthest heroic old 



* I only profess, you will please to observe, to ask questions in 

 Proserpina. Never to answer any. But of course this chapter is to 

 introduce some further inquiry in another place. 



