JANUARY. 



37 



to subdivide their trunks into several diverging boughs, and 

 exhibit a wider spray than the pines in the same cramped 

 sitnation. It is also worthy of notice that no other trees are 

 disfigured by so many dead branches as may be found on the 

 shafts of the pines and firs, whose lateral branches invariably 

 perish from any cause that stops their growth. 



Yet on account of the symm^etry of their elementary forms, 

 the beauty of the coniferous trees is always spoiled by the 

 loss of a limb, as the porch of a temple would be ruined in 

 its proportions, by the removal of one of its pillars. Other 

 trees being less formal and symmetrical, and having the power 

 of readily filling up a vacancy occasioned by the loss of a 

 branch, may suffer considerable mutilation, witliout perma- 

 nently losing their beauty. An invariable proportion is not 

 necessary to render them pleasing objects of sight. Thus, 

 from a plantation in which the trees have come up in an 

 irregular manner, and with no arrangement, we may remove 

 any one or more, without deforming its general appearance ; 

 but a quincunx or an avenue admit of no vacancies without 

 manifest defacement. Hence we may account for the fact 

 that we so seldom see a pine or a fir tree, unless it bs very 

 young, which is not absolutely ugly. All trees are exposed 

 to so many accidents, that those which require symmetry as 

 essential to their comely appearance, are not likely to escape 

 many years without the loss of their beauty. Hence we 

 may also explain why a pine forest has so little beauty when 

 viewed in its interior, where the dead branches protruding 

 from the trunks of the trees destroy that neatness which is 

 so remarkable in the clean shafts of poplars, birches, and other 

 rapidly growing deciduous trees. 



In the forms of individual trees, the later grown forests 

 greatly exceed the primitive wilderness. In the latter, well 

 developed trees are rarely seen, and the greater part of them 

 are mere pillars, terminating in a tuft of verdure. After 

 this primitive growth of timber has been felled, the new 

 growth seldom springs up so densely as the first, and many 

 of the trees have an opportunity to extend their lateral 

 branches, and to attain completeness in their forms and pro- 



