THE LA NDSCAPE BEAUTIFUL 



color, as well as for form. It is beautiful 

 in expression, in the associations that clus- 

 ter around it, or which are gratuitously 

 given to it. There is one elm in Cambridge 

 which we cannot see without vividly imag- 

 ining how the great Washington looked 

 as he stood beneath its early shade. When 

 I find a very old tree in the forest, my mind 

 blossoms full of pictures such as this tree 

 might have seen, — of wigwams and camp 

 fires, and a whole race of men and women 

 now gone forever. 



Even the imperfect tree is beautiful ; or, 

 as Gilpin or Downing would have said, it 

 is picturesque. For this is the figure which 

 these men used to illustrate the difference 

 between the beautiful and the picturesque. 

 A tree which reaches full, perfect, and 

 normal development is beautiful; one which 

 bears upon it the scars of severe struggle, 

 broken by storms and living against partial 

 defeat, is picturesque. A certain school of 

 landscape gardeners used to plant dead and 

 blasted trees in private parks just to give 

 this note of picturesqueness. 



A tree seems more human than most 

 objects in the world. We more readily 

 ascribe human qualities to it. The oak-tree 



36 



