TALKS ON TREES 143 



thought of the single mark of supremacy which 

 distinguishes this tree from those around it? The 

 others shirk the work of resisting gravity; the oak 

 defies it. It chooses the horizontal direction for 

 its limbs so that their whole weight may tell, and 

 then stretches them out fifty or sixty feet, so that the 

 strain may be mighty enough to be worth resisting. 

 You will find, that, in passing from the extreme down- 

 ward droop of the branches of the weeping willow 

 to the extreme upward inclination of those of the 

 poplar, they sweep nearly half a circle. At 90 

 degrees the oak stops short ; to slant upward another 

 degree would mark infirmity of purpose; to bend 

 downwards, weakness of organization. The Ameri- 

 can elm betrays something of both; yet sometimes, 

 as we shall see, puts on a certain resemblance to 

 its sturdier neighbor. 



It won't do to be exclusive in our taste about trees. 

 There is hardly one of them which has not peculiar 

 beauties in some fitting place for it. I remem- 

 ber a tall poplar of monumental proportions and 

 aspect, a vast pillar of glossy green, placed on the 

 summit of a lofty hill, and a beacon to all the coun- 

 try round. A native of that region saw fit to build 

 his house very near it, and, having a fancy that it 

 might blow down some time or other, and exter- 

 minate himself and any incidental relatives who 

 might be "stopping" or " tarrying" with him 

 also laboring under the delusion that human life 



