TREES IN UNDRESS. 153 



oblique creases, furrows and ridges, that one, 

 even in the Winter, can readily distinguish the 

 genus to which they belong. 



The wood of the ash is used by the craftsmen 

 for so many purposes that the tree has passed into 

 a proverb : " The ash for nothing ill." No, "noth- 

 ing ill"; for besides the good axles, oars and 

 baskets that are made from the wood, and the 

 healing properties that are ascribed to the leaf 

 and bark, they serve to delight the Winter ram- 

 bler, as he reads their special signets and crests on 

 the heavens. He is pleased to note and compare 

 these ashen boughs with those of other trees, and 

 to ask, while he looks on all this branch variation, 

 whence it has come about. What is the inherent 

 mysterious law that sends upward so gracefully, 

 with double and oftentimes with triple curvature, 

 the branches of the aspen, that twists and zigzags 

 those of the oak and beech, and spreads the arms 

 of the pine, the noblest of trees, horizontally from 

 the trunks .■" 



It is also interesting to one who looks on the 

 woodlands in Winter to consider the origin and 

 growth of trees that shed their leaves at this 

 season, and how much they differ from the pines, 

 hemlocks, and other coniferous monarchs that 

 appear so warm in their garments of green. 



No doubt, at one time, in the early period of 

 the earth's existence, these monstrous plants, that 



