Darkening Skies 277 



or beech has a grandeur under December skies 

 which is half masked as soon as the buds begin to 

 thicken in the tops, and our attention is distracted 

 by insuppressible anticipations of spring. 



Most fascinating of all trees in winter is the oak, 

 with its peculiar combination of strength and 

 fantasy of line. Oak boughs curve and cross in 

 endless black patterns against the sky, but always 

 preserve an essential conviction of power for all 

 their imaginative vagaries. The main secret of 

 their strength is that the boughs never outrun their 

 hold upon the massive trunk, and so never get top- 

 heavy ; and this strength of grip is continued in 

 the roots beneath the soil. The curves of the 

 boughs are never lax, but are tense and held in 

 hand. The strength in the oak's pattern is best 

 seen by comparing it with that of the trees which 

 come nearest to imitating it, such as the walnut 

 and plane. The plane's boughs are sinuous and 

 wandering, and often seem to have no coherence 

 with their own beginnings ; and although, as a 

 matter of fact, planes are tough trees, and seldom 

 shed their boughs in a gale, they have not this 

 appearance to the eye. The pattern of a walnut 

 tree is that of an oak, but lacking in every detail 

 some hint of the oak's firmness. Here the defi- 

 ciency is real ; for the walnut only too often sheds 

 its main boughs, and there are comparatively few 

 perfect full-grown specimens. 



But although one naked tree has more muscular 

 perfection than another, no healthy specimen fails 

 to gain in essential beauty by being stripped of its 



