USES OF THE FORESTS. 9 
buffs and yellows of the birches, give place at last to the full 
scarlets, yellows and browns of the oaks, many of whose leaves 
remain adhering through the snows of wmter. These and forty 
other trees, and twice as many shrubs, furnish as inexhaustible a 
store-house of colors as they do of shape and foliage. It would 
be endless to speak of the adjuncts of trees, the climbing shrubs, 
the Virginia creeper, so remarkable for the richness of its fading 
colors, the Roxbury wax-work, for its berries, the ivy, the vine 
and. the climbers which naturally attach themselves to our trees, 
and which may be trained upon them in cultivation; the lichens 
which cloud and paint their trunks with touches of green and 
yellow, white and brown, and the mosses of brilliant green 
or purple velvet which grow about their base. All these are 
studies for the landscape gardener, and their daily observation 
will add immeasurably to the pleasure of the contemplative 
man who dwells in or traverses the country in autumn with 
the eye of a painter, and the feelings of a poet, or with those 
of a worshipper of the Author of these beauties. 
It is surprising how small is the number of trees necessary 
to produce a striking effect. ‘Ten or twelve trees, fortunately or 
skilfully disposed on the sides or brow of a hill, are often suffi- 
cient to give it an air of richness harmonizing perfectly with a 
highly cultivated country. 'The happy effect of three or four 
trees on an island in Boston harbor has been already mentioned ; 
a single one on Pettick’s Island gives an agreeable relief to the 
eye. A single tree by a farmer’s house protects it, and gives it 
a desirable air of seclusion and rest; as if it must be the resi- 
dence of peace and contentment. One almost covets a house 
so pleasantly sheltered. While an unprotected, solitary house 
seems to shiver in the north wind, and we involuntarily wish 
for the inhabitants a more cheerful home. Why should not at 
least one tree be found growing near the dwelling of every man, 
even the poorest and humblest? 
Nothing can better illustrate the variety of cur forest trees, 
compared with the European, than a criticism of the learned 
Hallam upon a passage in Spencer’s Fairy Queen. It is that 
in the first book where a shady grove is described, in which the 
knight and lady take refuge. The critic objects “to the stanza 
