138 THE MAPLE AND THE SYCAMORE. 



may be yielded, likely enough, by trees unhappily 

 placed as regards free growth ; but the dignity of 

 their figure, the repose of the outline, the sumptuous 

 massing of the foliage of the masculine kinds, the 

 graceful trail of those of feminine habit, these, and 

 all other such qualities, are possible only to a life of 

 freedom. Precisely the difference between a ship 



ENGLISH MAPLE, LEAF AND FRUIT. 



laid up in a dock-yard, and, glorious in her white 

 sails, afar off upon the sea, " walking the waters 

 like a thing of life," is that of a tree as ordi- 

 narily seen, and the same species when robed in its 

 grand privileges, and fulfilling the destiny assigned 

 to it in the beginning. 



The maple, Acer campestre, ordinarily seen only 

 as a bushy mass in the hedgerow, attains, under 



