40 HOME AND GARDEN 



half to three feet in diameter, have done the same 

 thing, and in each case the sense of balance and ade- 

 quate support could not have been better expressed. 



One small Beech with a trunk only as yet eight 

 inches in diameter has one large backward root firmly 

 clutching the bank, but it now depends on one of these 

 under-stems where two main roots have joined and 

 grown together, and are actually thicker than the 

 trunk above. The little tree seems to have a perfect 

 feeling for balance and construction, and its gracefully 

 poised trunk shoots upward with a staunch conscious- 

 ness of structural stability. 



Some eight yards farther down the lane one sees 

 how an Oak gets over the same difficulty. Here there 

 is no main supporting column, but it has thrown down 

 a number of roots — about twenty of from three to six 

 inches diameter, and many lesser ones. They fork 

 and lace and intertwine in a kind of complicated web 

 — where they touch they become welded together, 

 greatly to the increase of strength and bearing power. 

 The actual weight of the tree stands over space, so 

 much has the sandy bank crumbled away under the 

 butt. The whole arrangement is evidently effectual, 

 for there the tree stands, a well-grown Oak with a two- 

 foot-thick trunk, and by no means young, for I can 

 remember it looking nearly the same all my life. But 

 the method of the Oak is much less satisfactory and 

 convincing to the eye and also less graceful than that 

 of the Beech, just as the tree itself has a more rugged 



