224 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



not as individuals, but as masses, with their architecture 

 hidden, and their foliage piled in shocks of green, full of 

 lights and shadows. And on the far horizon they are still 

 in our view, spread out in innumerable companies in a 

 long thin line where overspread with pale haze. 



The well-grown clump of trees shows us, from the out- 

 side, only its leaves, with just enough of glimpses of support- 

 ing framework to suggest stability. The leaves are all on 

 the outside, spread out broadly to the sun. We put our 

 head through the leafy cover to the inside and look up — and 

 it is like looking into an attic, seeing beams and rafters in- 

 stead of familiar roofs. Inside all is gray bare boughs 

 forking, and forking again, and stretching up to and sup- 

 porting the overshadowing leaf-cover. We examine the 

 outside carefully, and we see that all the leaves are mutually 

 adjusted to get the maximum benefit from the light. The 

 removal of a single leaf alters and mars the adjustment; 

 the overturn of a single spray sets it grotesquely awry. 



How the outside of a tree appears in the foreground of the 

 landscape, depends on the size and form and number of its 

 leaves, and on the way they are held up into the light. Foli- 

 age masses are endlessly varied. They are cumulous masses 

 in the sugar-maple — masses of broad, shade-resistant leaves 

 heaped up and compound-heaped like the front of a thunder- 

 cloud. They are cancellate masses in the white birch, with 

 its small thin leaves in open order like latticework. They 

 are frondose masses in ailanthus and sumac and other trees 

 having compound leaves. They are soft and furry cylinders, 

 rather symmetrically arranged, in the spruces and tamarack; 

 and other trees show all grades between these types. Hick- 

 ories are given to be a bit irregular, and to hold their sprays 

 rather stiffly, while the beech lets the fringe of its leaf-cover 

 run down in long ornate sprays, that are poised in the 

 hollows of the woods with exquisite grace. The softest ef- 



