6 
NATURE NOTES. 
TREES IN WINTER. 
HERE are two conditions under which trees in winter 
can be studied with the greatest advantage, and where 
their individual peculiarities can be more readily ap- 
preciated. If the observer is fortunate enough to be 
in the neighbourhood of a mass of woodland trees on a surface 
more or less flat, and bounded by an open country, such as a 
common, he will be able to take accurate note of the separate 
trees ; and this he can do more easily if the undergrowth has 
been cut away, because they will stand out more clearly and 
distinctly, and their outlines can be more accurately gauged. 
Again, if a mass of woodland trees is placed in such a 
position that the ground, instead of being flat, is irregular, 
with here a hill and there a depression, slope or valley, the 
observer has an opportunity not only of studying individuals, 
but of noting the effect of masses of unclothed trees when- 
grouped together under such conditions. 
It is difficult for those who are in the habit of associating 
trees with their spring, summer, and autumnal dress, to take 
much notice of them when they are deprived of their foliage, 
and to be able to see how much beauty they possess during 
the drear and cheerless season of winter. A careful observa- 
tion, however, of trees deprived of their summer foliage, either 
arranged together in masses of lesser or greater extent, or 
growing singly, will soon convince us that the interest and 
beaut}^ connected with their naked architecture is as striking 
as when they are clothed in their summer apparel. At no 
other time is it so possible to study the various ramifications 
of trees as when they are perfectl}^ naked, and so allow us to 
bring into view every branch and every twig, and take cogni- 
sance of the extraordinary and striking variations in the features, 
of our trees during the period of winter. 
In illustration of this let me refer to a few of the trees most 
familiar to us, and then we shall see how much there is to 
attract our attention. 
That grandest of all our trees, the oak, with its naked 
branches presents the most striking appearance: this is espe- 
cially noticeable when they are seen together or mingled with 
other trees, for although in a measure they resemble each other 
so much, yet by the eccentric diversity of the limbs and their 
ramifications it is almost impossible to find two of them exactly 
alike, and thus it is that the observation of these naked trees, 
is a source of so much interest. 
Beautiful as is the beech in summer and in autumn, it 
presents in winter a most striking appearance, when iully 
grown. Its stem, covered with its smooth shining bark, and 
consisting of two or three main trunks, and dividing into nu- 
merous pendent branches, affords great beauty to the landscape, 
although there is not such a variety in the divisions and sub- 
divisions of its boughs as exists in the oak. 
