THE PERSONALITY OF TREES 316 



the manner of life and death of the first spruce, 

 battling to the very last ! 



A beech seedling which takes root close to the 

 bank of a stream has a good chance of surviving, 

 since there will be no competitors on the water 

 side and moisture and air will never fail. But 

 look at some ancient beech growing thus, whose 

 smooth, whitened bole encloses a century of 

 growth rings. Offsetting its advantages, the 

 stream, little by little, has undermined the maze 

 of roots and the force of annual freshets has 

 trained them all in a down-stream direction. It 

 is an inverted reminder of the wind-moulded 

 spruce. Although the stout beech props itself by 

 great roots thrown landward, yet, sooner or later, 

 the ripples will filter in beyond the centre of 

 gravity and the mighty tree will topple and mingle 

 .with its shadow-double which for so many years 

 the stream has reflected. 



Thus we find that while without moisture no 

 tree could exist, yet the same element often brings 

 death. The amphibious mangroves which fringe 

 the coral islands of the southern seas hardly attain 

 to the dignity of trees, but in the mysterious 

 depths of our southern swamps we find the 

 strangely picturesque cypresses, which defy the 

 waters about them. One cannot say where trunk 

 ends and root begins, but up from the stagnant 

 slime rise great arched buttresses, so that the tree 

 seems to be supported on giant six- or eight-legged 



