42 SYLVAN WINTER. 



From the brandies the spray depends grace- 

 fully, and produces an appearance which may be 

 likened to water streaming over a rock. Perhaps 

 the expression ' spray ' may have had its origin 

 in some fancied resemblance of the smaller 

 ramification of a tree to the showers of water at 

 a waterfall. Attached to each twig on the Larch, 

 like beads strung sparsely upon string, are the 

 small protuberances which indicate the position 

 of the buds ; whilst hung here and there in the 

 meshes of the spray are the pretty cones, some- 

 times dependent, and sometimes erect, or nearly 

 so. It is the droop in a species of festoons of 

 the Larch spray that gives the flat appearance to 

 the upper side of each branch ; for though the 

 smaller branches grow all around the larger 

 ones, their length and weight make them droop, 

 especially as they are also weighted by the twigs 

 that grow out from them. It is, of course, 

 the slenderness in proportion to the length 

 of the branches and twigs which causes the 

 droop. The entire aspect of this tree is 

 graceful, beautiful, and striking. To our own 

 account of this elegant tree we must add an 



