110 Gilpin's forest sceneet. 



yetj in many circumstances, even in this state, it 

 may be an object of picturesque notice. 



Thus we see, in the form of the Stone Pine, 

 what beauty may result from a tree with a round 

 head and without lateral branches, which requires 

 indeed a good example to prove. When we look 

 at an Ash or an Elm, from Avhich the lateral 

 branches have been stripped, as is the practice in 

 some countries, we are apt to thinlc that no tree, 

 with a head placed on a long stem, can be 

 beautiful : yet in Nature's hands (which can 

 mould so many forms of beauty) it may easily be 

 effected. Nature herself, however, does not 

 always follow the rules of picturesque beauty in 

 the production of this kind of object. The Cab- 

 bage Tree, I suppose, is as ugly as the Stone Pine 

 is picturesque. The best specimen of the Stone 

 Pine I ever saw was growing in the botanical 

 garden at Oxford. For the sake of the ground it 

 occupied (I have never heard any other reason 

 suggested) it was lately cut down. 



The most beautiful succedaneum of the Stone 

 Pine which these climates afford is the Pinaster. 

 The sweep of its stem is similar, its broken lateral 



