242 



AUTUMN AND WINTER 



broad ; often the density of the outer twigs gives it a curious 

 packed or compressed look, as if the air was squeezing it in 

 on every side. The bark of old trees is scaly, and shows a 

 tendency to flake off like that of the London plane. 



The sycamore is really a maple, its name being due to a 

 confusion with the wild fig- tree mentioned in the New Testa- 

 ment. The common English maple is more often a shrub 

 than a tree, but sometimes grows to medium height. It 

 usually makes a rather straggling and ill-shaped tree, but 

 sometimes its wayward growth leads it to take some unusually 



CORKY BARK OF THE HEDGE-MAPLE 



picturesque form. Besides its individual and erratic shapes, 

 its most recognisable feature, at a little distance, is the density 

 of its rounded masses of twigs, which are considerably closer 

 and blacker than those of the beech or elm, and make a great 

 contrast with trees of open growth, such as the ash or black 

 poplar. The hedge-maple, as it is sometimes called, can be 

 identified most easily by its bark, which is reddish in colour, 

 corklike and almost spongy in texture, and ridged and 

 furrowed very deeply. Like the birch and the cherry-tree, 

 the hedge-maple is often garnished with the dark masses of 

 small twigs known as witches' brooms. These may easily be 

 mistaken for large birds' nests. This excessive growth of 

 twigs at a certain spot is most probably due to an injury of 



