80 THE MOUNTAINS 



ing to sweep the whole campus into the 

 spot in front of him, exclaimed heartily: 

 "There it is! That beech! Is there any- 

 where on earth any living thing more 

 beautiful?" 



Tree-Individuality 



To me, though, the most striking thing 

 about that noble beech, or about any nota- 

 ble tree, is not its beauty as a feature of 

 the natural world, but, rather, its large 

 quantity of individuality. In fact, I mean 

 more than bare individuality, I mean indi- 

 viduality expressing type. Truly re- 

 markable trees not only have an itemnic 

 individuality, they not only hold their 

 own as organic, significant, impressive 

 items in the vast confusion of nature, but 

 they gather up into most particular stress 

 all the characteristics of the tree groups 

 to which they belong. Just now I am re- 

 membering with keen delight a mighty 

 oak which I found, perhaps two miles out 

 from the city of Dresden. It was a red 



