FOREST TREES AND FOREST SCENERY 



portions and assumes its most indi- 

 vidual expression. There it mounts 

 proudly upward, contending in height 

 at wide intervals with sugar maples 

 and tulip trees, its common associates 

 in the forest. Its lofty crown may be 

 seen at a distance, lifted conspicuously 

 above the heads of its neighbors. Stand 

 beneath it, however, and look up at its 

 lower branches, and there is revealed 

 an intricacy of branchwork and a tortu- 

 osity of limb such as is unattained 

 when it stands alone in the field. The 

 boldness with which the white oak will 

 sometimes throw out its limbs abruptly, 

 and twist and writhe to the outermost 

 twig, I have never seen quite equaled in 

 the other oaks. The live oak, it must 

 be admitted, is even more abrupt where 

 the limb divides from the trunk, but 

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