122 



MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST 



His royal mien should be pourtrayed by broad shoulders, and 

 muscular outstretched arms, so as to match the Oak's great 

 horizontal limbs. The bosky foliage should be represented by 

 the King's curling hair, the huge trunk by a mighty torso, and 

 the far-spreading roots by the long folds of his royal mantle. 

 I look to-day at the Venus of the trees, the Ash, or the grace 



and beauty of the Birch, 

 which has won for it the 

 title of Lady of the 

 Woods. Both these trees, 

 and the suavely graceful 

 Beech, are best imper- 

 sonated by gentle women, 

 but the strange powers, 

 scents, sombre mysteries, 

 and dark evergreen foli- 

 age of the Fir, reveal him 

 as a beneficent wizard. 

 The Pine, by his bold 

 and storm-tossed air, is 

 the soldier of the frontier. 

 It is said that sometimes 

 we cannot see the wood 

 for the trees, but, quite 

 as often, we do not see 

 the trees because of the 

 wood. To see the in- 

 dividuality of a tree it is 

 necessary to study it 

 alone, where it has every 

 opportunity of expanding to the full, and is in no way im- 

 peded by its fellows. I want to see the same tree all the year 

 through, and season after season. There is hardly a day in 

 my life when I do not look up at a giant Poplar which stands, 

 sentinel-like, in a little copse where the Nightingale loves to hide, 

 and from whose dizzy heights the Tree Pipit delights to gambol. 

 I compute that I have looked at that immense Poplar (I hesitate 

 to refer to its species, or variety) over three thousand times, and 

 yet to-morrow I shall not consider my day complete unless I 

 renew acquaintance with this favourite giant again. I watch it 

 all through Winter, and observe the sticky pointed scales which 

 protect the catkins hidden within. It blossoms, like its cousin 



. 56. BLACK POPLAR LEAF AND CATKINS. 



