252 GREEN TRAILS AND UPLAND PASTURES 



mast-like inclined a little from the winter gales as if it 

 had stood its ground and taken their buffets for a hun- 

 dred years without more than bending backward from 

 the hips when the blows rained thickest. I know such a 

 pine on a hilltop which has been carved by the storms 

 of a century into a quaint and splendid replica of the 

 Winged Victory, and there is no passer who sees it but 

 pauses a moment to admire its rugged beauty, its sug- 

 gestion of triumphant, dogged strength. To deny that 

 pine personality is to prove your utter lack of imagina- 

 tion. 



The American elm is another common native tree 

 possessing both great beauty and a strongly marked 

 personality. It is easy to say that the elm was madejthe 

 standard shade tree of American municipalities by the 

 early settlers because it was easily procured and phys- 

 ically well adapted to the purpose. But that really does 

 not explain the choice. The maple was quite as com- 

 mon, is more easily transplanted, and a much more rapid 

 grower. Indeed, as a matter of fact, it was rather more 

 generally used on that account. The ash and the oak 

 were at hand, the pine and the hemlock, the sycamore 

 and linden. All of them, moreover, were employed. 

 So were the chestnut and the black cherry. But the 

 elm was felt to be the standard then, and is still recog- 

 nized as the standard, because its personality so exactly 

 comports with geometrical street vistas, with the formal 

 lines of architecture, with the orderliness and dignity 



