TREE FORMS IN WINTER 233 



yet there is unmistakable power in every curve. When the 

 wind arises, every crook and curve becomes a tough resilient 

 spring ; the small boughs dance to the gale with a steely 

 quiver, and the pressure of the wind is transferred to the 

 larger limbs. These have a similar reserve of power in their 

 great bent lines, which can yield sufficiently to dissipate the 

 pressure of the blast without being forced back so far as to 



WALNUT 



snap. The fullest strength of the oak is reached in its thick 

 trunk, buttressed roots above ground, and the depth to which 

 they reach beneath the soil. 



Other trees with characteristically curving boughs are the 

 walnut and the plane. At a first glance in winter an old 

 walnut-tree often looks very like an oak. Its boughs seem 

 to take the same delight in crooks and curves ; and when it 

 has a stalwart trunk below, it is often a very fine tree. But 

 when we examine it a little closer, every point of resemblance 

 to the oak brings out an equally conspicuous difference. The 

 curves are both fewer and noticeably softer ; the tree has not 



