MAGNOLIA FAMILY 
the weak. All trees that live in the forest learn this lesson, 
and this is the explanation of the well-known fact that in or- 
der to find out what the actual typical form of a tree really 
is, one must see it growing alone with ample space to develop 
after the law of its nature. 
No tree shows the difference between free life and forest 
ge a 
Trunk of the Cucumber-tree. 
Jife more clearly than the Cucumber, for it takes on two dis- 
tinctly characteristic forms dependent upon its location, An 
individual which has attained its growth in the forest rises 
straight as a column to the height of thirty, forty, or fifty 
feet without a branch. When, however, a seedling starts in 
a clearing, or a sucker grows up from a decaying stump, the 
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