4 THE TREE FOLK 



soul of it^ built a trunk that stood erect; the apple soul 

 built a trunk that leaned northward. Pine trees alwavs 

 stand up straight; Apple trees always lean one way or 

 another. Do you know why? The pine soul built soft 

 white wood with pitch in it; the apple soul, hard white 

 wood with syrup in it. 



The pine soul clothed itself with spears, five in a 

 sheaf; the apple soul with shields, each alone, the under 

 side the more delicately damascened. The pine soul 

 dotes on helical curves; the apple soul on curves of 

 force. Draw a sheaf of the spears through your wet lips 

 three or four times and they will stick together, as indi- 

 cated in the sketch (A). The lines of cleavage are not 

 straight; they are curves twisted on the surface of the 

 green cylinder. The pine cone is like this, only fatter and 

 more complex (B). The curves run both ways, dividing 

 the surface into diamonds, each a scale with its little 

 beak. This fruit of the pine is brown, dry, hard, sticky, 

 bitter; from the pioneer's point of view fit only to kindle 

 a fire. 



The apple leaf has a contour based on two curves of 

 force, as Ruskin called them, with crooked veins which 

 manage to stagger along, growing weaker, in the same 

 general direction (C). A curve of force is like the path 

 of a good sky-rocket, or of a jet of water from the nozzle 

 of your lawn hose: at first nearly straight, but curving 

 more and more until it explodes or falls in drops. Two 



