^88 
A COMPARISON OF THE 
The mere weighty breadth^ and height of the trunk and branches 
of a tree, without reference to its 
outlines or foliage, are the principal 
sources of majesty in trees ; and it 
is when majesty and picturesqueness 
are combined that we realize our 
higher ideals of grandeur. A tree 
with massive horizontal branches in- 
voluntarily impresses us with a sense 
of the immense inherent strength 
that can sustain so great a weight in a position that most squarely 
defies the mechanical force of gravity ; and therefore conveys the 
impression of majesty, though it has no extraordinary height or 
dimensions. On the other hand, the tulip-tree, or the cottonwood, 
with a straight and lofty stem from three to six feet in diameter, 
is a grand object by virtue of its weight, and loftiness, and the 
power that its dimensions express, though its head may not be 
proportionally large, nor its bark or branches massive, rough, and 
angular, or its outline irregular enough 
to be picturesque. The sycamore, or 
buttonball, is a familiar example of a 
swelling trunk of majestic size. Its 
bark is as smooth in age as in youth ; 
but it has a certain picturesqueness 
from the contrasts of color caused by 
shedding its thin bark laminae in scales ; 
and majesty by its size, and the bold- 
ness of its divergent branches. 
Mere size of trunk, and weight of branches, affect us so 
powerfully, that when we have lived near a fine old tree, it is not 
so much the beauty of its foliage, or the pleasures of its shade, that 
produce the reverent love we have for it, but the unconscious 
presence of the majesty of Nature impressing us like 
“* * * an emanation from the Indwelling spirit of the Deity.” 
By referring to the vignette of the oak at the head of page 302, 
the effect produced by mere breadth and weight in producing 
Fig. 79. 
Fig. 78. 
