206 



SCIENCE OF THE STUDY OF TREES. 



PART II, 



these cases, the artist must supply the shade, from his knowledge of the manner 

 in which it is supplied by the sun when it shines. 



The artist having chosen his tree, and fixed his chau' at the proper distance, 

 the next step is, to measure or estimate its height. In the case of young trees, 

 this is easily done by a 10-ft. rod, which, added to the height of a man and the' 

 length of his arm stretched above his head, will give 18 ft.; which v/ill cover 

 the height of most trees of ten years' growth. In the case of old trees, the 

 height may be ascertained by a common quadrant, by a graduated quadrant, 

 or, which in practice, and more especially when trees are crowded together, 

 will be found the best of all modes, by pushing up the side of the trunk a 

 series of rods connected one with the other by small tin tubes. This, and 

 various other modes, wiU be found described in Gard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 548. ; 

 and the subject will be again adverted to when treating of useful plantations, 

 and felling timber, in Part IV. of this Encyclopeedia. 



The height of the tree to be drawn being measured, and supposing it to be 

 19 ft. 7 in., then nineteen divisions and a half of the scale arc to be counted 

 down from the top of the parallelogram, and a slight line drawn across, as at 

 a a, in fig, 2. An estimate is next to be made of the diameter of the space 

 covered by the branches, and also of the extent of the branches on each side 

 of the tree. If the branches extend nearly to an equal distance on each side 

 of the trunk, then all that is necessary is, to make a mark in the centre of the 

 horizontal line a a, at b, in order to indicate the centre of the trunk. If, on 

 the other hand, the branches extend much more on one side than on the 

 other, then the first step is, to set off the total diameter, so as to reach within 

 equal distances of each side of the page, as at c c, in /ig. 2. ; and supposing 

 the trunk to be one eighth nearer one side than the other, then the place for 

 its centre may be indicated at cl on the base line e e. 



The next step ip one of some importance. The artist should go up close 

 to the tree, examine its leaves, and make sketches of an individual leaf, and 

 of a cluster of leaves, both to a larger scale than that to which the tree is to 

 be drawn, and then to the same scale to which the tree is to be drawn. 

 These sketches are merely to be considered as studies made with a view 

 of acquiring what artists call the touch, or ultimate character of form, with 

 which the tree is to be clothed. As all the masses of light and shade, 

 and all the various forms which a tree clothed with its leaves presents in 

 natm-e, result from the vai-ious disposition of one form of leaf; so, in a picture, 

 all the imitations of these are formed by the repetition of one character of 

 touch. Sometimes the leaves on the tree, and the touches in the picture, are 

 so crowded as almost to obliterate each other; at other times in both they 

 are more distinct, and the form of the leaf, and the character of the touch, 

 may be more clearly recognised. In densely clothed trees the form of the 

 leaf, and the character of the touch, are most discernible at the extremities 

 of the branches ; in thinly clothed trees they are discernible throughout. 



The young artist, however, must not suppose, from all this, that to repre- 

 sent a tree it is only necessary to know the form of its leaf and of its touch ; 

 neither must he suppose that, in making out the details of the tufting or 

 subordinate masses of a tree, he is merely to repeat leaf after leaf: on the 

 contrary, having a knowledge of the forms of the leaves when examined 

 singly, and of their clustering as exhibited on the points of the branches in 

 the general outline of the tree when examined singly, and also of the tufting, 

 or subordinate masses, of the tree when examined singly, he must copy from 

 nature, almost without reference to his knowledge of these details ; lest, instead 

 of making a picture of the tree as it is in nature,"he should portray only his own 

 ideas of how a tree ought to be drawn. We repeat, that he cannot too closely 

 copy nature, and this without reference to any rules ; calling to his assistance 

 his technical knowledge of the leaves, of the touch, and of the character of 

 tufting, only where he feels the want of it, to assist him where the appearance 

 of nature may be of doubtful expression. In this way a man writes on any 

 subject, without continually thinking of grammar or syntax ; but when he 



