SOUECES OP PICTUBESQUENESS IN TJBEES. 25 



often see the graceful fronds of the flowerless plants 

 ■waving from the rotten and curtailed boles of ancient 

 giants of the wood. When, indeed, we strive to imitate 

 Nature, we cannot too closely follow her teachings. — Ed. 



The last, and most beautiful, of tliose diseases 

 wliicli Mr. Lawson ascribes to trees, is moss. Tliis, 

 it is true, is one of Nature's minuti^, and, in 

 painting, touclies not the great parts, composition 

 and effects. Nor is it of use in mere drawing. But, 

 in coloured landscape, it is surely a very beautiful t' 

 object of imitation. The variety of mosses — the 

 green, which tinges the trunk of the Beech ; the 

 brimstone-coloured and black, which stain the 

 Oak ; and the yellow, which is frequently found on 

 the Elm and Ash, are among the most beautiful of 

 those tints which, embellish, the bark of trees. 



I have often stood with admiration before an 

 old forest Oak, examining the various tints which 

 have enriched its furrowed stem. The genuine 

 bark of an Oak is of an ash colour, though it is 

 difficult to distinguish any part of it from the 

 mosses that overspread it : for no Oak, I suppose, 

 was ever without a greater or a less proportion of 

 these picturesque appendages. The lower parts, 







