1893.] ESSAYS. 69 



the tree at ten feet above the ground, and has a girth ,of ten feet, and 

 alone with its belongings forms a really big tree. 



This giant buttonwood, at two feet from the ground, has a girth of 

 18 feet; at four feet it is 16 feet and 5 inches, and at five feet it is 

 15 feet and 8 inches. The lesser of this brace of buttonwoods is 

 remarkable for the uniform size of its trunk, its height, and for its 

 expansive top. For twenty-two feet the trunk is without a limb, and 

 it is as round as if fashioned in a turning lathe. The taper of this 

 in one foot is only one inch in a foot of its diameter. Thus at three 

 feet from the ground the tree girths 13 feet, 1 inch, and at four feet 

 its girth is just 13 feet, while at six feet above the ground it is 12 

 feet and 10 inches, thus again showing a declension or tapering of 

 only one-third of an inch to the foot of its diameter. This tree is 

 ninety feet high, and is handsomely furnished with branches and 

 terminals. 



On the southerly slope of the gap between Mt. Wachusett and 

 Pine Hill is a veteran quartette of red oaks. They are in full view 

 from the Mountain House, and ten minutes walk from it. Four 

 trees, whose trunks would make a greater or better amount of lumber, 

 it would be difficult to find in any locality. Theirs must be a long 

 and interesting history, but in each instance it is neariug the end, for 

 the hand of death is laid upon them and they are dying by inches 

 from the top downward. Their careers have been tempestuous ones, 

 for they stand in the direct, cold, and constant northwest wind, as it 

 comes full blast from the mountain. That they have attained to so 

 great a stature, and have lived to so great an age, shows at least how 

 natural it is for trees to grow in Worcester County, under the most 

 adverse circumstances. A curious provision of Nature is noticeable 

 in the growth of the oaks, and all other trees, in the shadow of Mt. 

 "Wachusett. This is an immense expansion of trunk at the ground, 

 thus forming a powerful brace against the wind. Not far distant 

 from the oaks is a walnut tree, with its entire top twisted and tangled 

 into a confused whorl. But the tree holds its position because of its 

 self-furnished braces. Its trunk and base form a perfect druggist's 

 pestle, and the change from the pestle proper to handle is as abrupt, 

 and as great in one as in the other. There are three chestnut trees 

 in the near vicinity of the oaks, every one of which girths twenty 

 feet at the base, but taper at four and five feet above to fifteen feet 

 in circumference. This singular and unusual expansion at the base 

 of the trees illustrates how Nature adapts itself to the exigencies of 

 the situation. Of the four oaks constituting the quartette, one has a 



