XXXII. TREES IN THE EARLY SUMMER 

 LANDSCAPE 



^'The birch tree throws a scarf of green 

 • Around her silver white, 



Woven of little polished leaves 



All delicate and bright, 

 It sways with every passing air 

 And shimmers in the light. 



Oh, like a Dryad nymph she stands, 



The birch tree, silver white! 

 And all day long that flowing veil 



Trembles for my delight. 

 She stirs it as she moves in it 

 As a young maiden might.'' 



— Ethel Barstow Howard (The Fairy Tree). 



Out in the coiintr}^ wherever we go, trees rise about us 

 and bound our view. They make vistas along the road- 

 ways; they fringe the streams; and they gracefully mass 

 themselves about the shores of lakes and bays. In a new 

 country, they cover the valley-side with a rich robe of green, 

 and in an old country, they rise like oases about the homes 

 that nestle among the cleared fields. In their shelter our 

 race has always dwelt. When men settle upon a treeless 

 prairie, they take trees with them and plant them cosily 

 about for shelter, and use them to make a pleasing out- 

 look by bordering the view from the windows of their homes. 



Trees furnish the chief elements of beauty in most land- 

 scapes, and usually those views are the most pleasing that 

 include the most trees. Near at hand, they rise about us 

 like the giants that they are, and show their individual 

 characters — their mighty trunks clad in bark, each with 

 its own coloring and sculpturing; their great anns and 

 crowns; and the elegant outlines of their leafy sprays out- 

 spread against the sky. At a little distance they appear, 



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