FOKEST TREES AND FOREST SCENERY 



there is a cool, deep shade. The 

 ground is scattered with fern, or cov- 

 ered with deep beds of leaves, or with 

 the glossy needles of the conifers. If 

 the forest has originated from seeds 

 borne by a generation of trees that 

 previously occupied the same spot, and 

 the seeds germinated here and there 

 and sprouted into a new forest upon 

 the removal of the old, we shall now 

 find the trees distributed in natural 

 positions. Where, however, the new 

 forest has been planted, which is often 

 the case with the conifers, the trees 

 stand in close rank and file, and we 

 walk among their columns as in nat- 

 ural aisles and corridors. Here there 

 is hardly a shrub to shut out the 

 gloomy distance, and only at intervals 

 a stray intruder with exceptional 

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