STABILITY OF TREES. 95 



bends its head first to the right and then to the left, as 

 if about to enter upon an important office, in which a 

 partner will be wanted. 



As yet, however, the vegetable creation is still and 

 dead ; and were it not that we have the remembrance 

 of a former year, and the belief that like seasons will 

 bring like productions, we could not anticipate a flower 

 or even a leaf. There is a beauty in the leafless trees 

 as they are pencilled out against the winter sky to the 

 most minute ramification. The firm curve by which the 

 bole embraces the earth, is that after which our engineers 

 have modelled those light-houses on the dangerous reefs 

 of Eddystone and the Bell Rock, that stand secure on 

 their bases amid the utmost fury of the sea, and save 

 many a cargo from destruction, and many a hardy tar 

 from an untimely grave. If too, the sea wall of a har- 

 bour be modelled to the same curve, it is wonderful 

 how much the swell of the sea is broken, how much 

 more tranquil the vessels lie, and how much longer the 

 wall lasts. In the thickness of a forest or grove, this 

 is not so much needed, and, therefore, it is not so con- 

 spicuous; in trees of minor growth and more limited 

 duration also, we do not find it ; but when an oak stands 

 alone on a plain or mountain side, in a soil adapted for 

 its growth, we uniformly find that it tempers itself to a 

 most complete resistance of the winds by swelling out 

 into that curve in which, as has been said, engineers 

 have found the greatest stability. And it is easy to 

 see how the curve which is thus formed acts in break- 

 ing the force, whether of the wind or of the waters. 

 The current impinges first on the spreading part of 

 the base which is close by the ground, and upon which, 



