XXXII. TREES IN THE EARLY SUMMER 
LANDSCAPE 
“The birch tree throws a scarf of green 
Around her silver white, 
Woven of little polished leaves 
All delicate and bright, 
It sways with every passing air 
And shimmers in the light. 
Oh, like a Dryad nymph she stands, 
The birch tree, stlver whitel 
And all day long that flowing veil 
Trembles for my delight. 
She stirs tt as she moves in it 
As a young maiden might.” 
—Ethel Barstow Howard (The Fairy Tree). 
Out in the country, wherever we go, trees rise about us 
and bound our view. They make vistas along the road- 
ways; they fringe the streams; and they gracefully mass 
themselves about the shores of lakes and bays. In a new 
country, they cover the valley-side with a rich robe of green, 
and in an old country, they rise like oases about the homes 
that nestle among the cleared fields. In their shelter our 
race has always dwelt. When men settle upon a treeless 
prairie, they take trees with them and plant them cosily 
about for shelter, and use them to make a pleasing out- 
look by bordering the view from the windows of their homes. 
Trees furnish the chief elements of beauty in most land- 
scapes, and usually those views are the most pleasing that 
include the most trees. Near at hand, they rise about us 
like the giants that they are, and show their individual 
characters—their mighty trunks clad in bark, each with 
its own coloring and sculpturing; their great arms and 
crowns; and the elegant outlines of their leafy sprays out- 
spread against the sky. At a little distance they appear, 
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