TREES 81 



oak, at least one hundred and fifty feet 

 high, and every part of the tree in gener- 

 ous correspondence. Looking at that 

 giant of the forest, I seemed to behold all 

 the oaks on earth, and all the oaks which 

 ever existed, summed up with finality in 

 one commanding oak-individuality. It 

 reminds me of an amusing saying con- 

 cerning our great Civil War minister at 

 the Court of Saint James, "Charles 

 Francis Adams was not one man, he was 

 the whole Adams family in one man!" 



This tree-individuality is, strangely 

 enough, the one thing which many of our 

 poets do not seem to be able to capture. 

 They describe a tree in becoming and sure 

 appreciation of its general features and 

 associations, and, sometimes, with a quick 

 sense of its accidental aspect; but they 

 altogether miss the fundamental pecu- 

 liarity of the type wonderfully and fasci- 

 natingly manifest in individuality. Sidney 

 Lanier, in "Under the Cedarcroft Chest- 

 nut," writes in this manner: 



