THE ARCHITECTURE OF TREES 165 



its feature. At the passing of the breeze, the fir- 

 trees sob and moan no less distinctly than they 

 rock; the holly whistles as it battles with itself; 

 the ash hisses amid its quiverings; the beech 

 rustles while its flat boughs rise and fall. And 

 winter, which modifies the note of such trees 

 as shed their leaves, does not destroy its indi- 

 viduality." 



So far the tree's stability. The other archi- 

 tectural quality we were to note was its beauty. 

 Trees have a beauty that is architectural, and 

 a beauty that we may compare to decoration. 

 In the latter category we should place the 

 beauty of leafage, in form and colour, the 

 beauty of flowers, the beauty of colour on stem 

 and branches. We have already had much to 

 say about all these. 



The architectural beauty arises out of the 

 conditions that make for stability ; out of the 

 gradual change from the spreading roots and 

 sturdy bole to the almost thread-like thinness 

 of the outermost and highest twigs. A not 

 uncommon mistake of not always youthful 

 artists is to make stem and branch taper. But 

 this is not the tree s method of building. An 

 average even thickness is maintained until a 



