i64 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



quite conspicuously out of the perpendicular. 

 This is most noticeable in level, open country- 

 near the sea, where the trees resemble thin, 

 shrivelled, hump-backed dwarfs. In woods 

 near the sea the sky-line curves upwards from 

 the coast-side ; the trees that are sheltered by 

 their neighbours from the harsh sea-winds 

 making the better growth. Far inland, in ex- 

 posed situations, such trees as the larger willows 

 and our native poplars often lean far out of the 

 perpendicular ; and, under the same conditions, 

 more stoutly-limbed trees, like the elm and the 

 lime, lean distinctly, if not so markedly. In 

 other cases the effect of the prevailing wind is 

 to make the tree less symmetrical than it would 

 be otherwise ; and this, not unseldom, increases 

 its beauty. The Lombardy poplar, having no 

 great weight of branches, and thinning away 

 towards the top, easily maintains its erectness. 

 Keen observers will note the varying sound 

 of the wind as it passes through different trees ; 

 variety in thickness of stem and branch, and in 

 character of leafage, is as the variety in instru- 

 ments of music. Thus Mr. Thomas Hardy 

 says that '* to dwellers in a wood, almost 

 every species of tree has its voice as well as 



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