90 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



uphold a weight of snow ; and in spring the stock-dove 

 finds, with his mate, a safe covert among iny light green 

 leaves, when returning to his ancient haunts. 



Salvator Rosa made great use of old trees. He liked 

 to contrast them with young saplings. Their gnarled 

 boughs and grey trunks looked well in the wild scenes, 

 in depicting which he so much excelled. Methinks I 

 should have been chosen among many, because, although 

 my youth has long since waned, and somewhat of decay 

 is visible in the lessening of umbrageous majesty, rather 

 than in actual decrepitude, my strong arms are grey with 

 lichens, and my ash-tinted bark is only seen at intervals 

 among the various mosses that have struck their tiny roots 

 in the interstices. Observe the bright green velvet moss 

 that has stationed itself around my roots. Brimstone- 

 coloured lichens succeed, and extend far up the trunk : 

 some are smooth and spreading, and seem imbedded in 

 the bark ; others are rough, and hang in small rich knots 

 and fringes ; and with these are intermingled a pure white 



