382 



A COMPARISON OF THE 



Fig. 63. 



Fig. 62. To what extent a tendency to pictur- 



esqueness may go, without loss of symmetry, 

 it is not easy to say. Fig. 62 is a well-pro- 

 portioned tree of picturesque outline, and 

 symmetrical as to the balance of its parts, 

 but not in the similitude of its opposite 

 halves. It is a form often seen in our native 

 locusts and the Scotch elm. Figs. 63 and 

 64 are both symmetrical, strikingly pictur- 

 esque in outline, and yet totally unlike each other. The first is a 

 form quite common to young weeping elms ; but with age, unlike 

 most trees, they become more symmetrical 

 and smoothly rounded. A full-grown weep- 

 ing elm is the most perfect example of the 

 union of symmetry, grace, and picturesque- 

 ness, among all the trees of the temperate 

 zone. 



Tree outlines may be divided into two 

 great classes of forms, which merge into each 

 other in every variety of combination. These 

 are round-headed trees, and conical, or pyra- 

 midal trees. 

 ' Fig. 64 is a form characteristic of rapidly grown scarlet oaks or 

 ginkgo trees. 



The contrast between this form and that of the young elm 

 above, is very marked; yet in outline they are almost equally 

 spirited, and in the balance of their oppo- 

 site parts are alike perfect. The elm, how- 

 ever, has the higher type of beauty, by 

 reason of the less mechanical distribution of 

 its weight, and the bolder projection of its 

 branches. All such spirited forms suggest 

 an inherent life and will in the tree, a kind 

 of pla)?ful disregard of set forms, a youthful 

 daring and defiance of the laws of gravita- 

 tion that is apt to please persons of imag- 

 inative minds. They are always favorites with artists ; while trees 

 of more compact and methodical arrangement are preferred by 



Fig. 64. 



