TREE BOLES 



To me there is an ever increasing delight in the 

 boles of trees, more especially in the massive beauty 

 of the deciduous trees, never omitting however the 

 handsome pine or Scotch fir. At every season they 

 retain their attractiveness, their varying colours, the 

 marvellous beauty of their individual barks, with 

 corrugations and scales, often intensified by bough 

 scars, some screwed and twisted like the pear and 

 Spanish chestnut, others mathematically symmetrical, 

 or charming in their irregularity. Note the contrasts 

 of the circling light and shade on their rounded boles, 

 the dappled patches where the filtered shafts of sun- 

 light fall, the colours of the algae and lichens which 

 embroider and enrich their surfaces : yes, they are 

 superbly beautiful and wonderful. 



We need but a very slight knowledge of leverage 

 and weight, of stress and strain, to appreciate some- 

 thing of their gigantic strength. Try for a few 

 moments to hold out your spade or lighter rake at 

 arm's length and see what it means to support its in- 



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