CHAPTEK XXIIL 
VARIETY AND TYPES IN NATURE. 
Here I am standing on the border of Passacon- 
awaj Glen. Points of oak forest extend into the 
prairie like peninsulas, and single monarchs stand out 
like islands in the sea. In the baylike recesses flourish 
tall grasses and weeds and colonies of wild flowers 
displaying their bright colors against green copses of 
hazel and hawthorn which fringe the taller trees. 
The sentinel oaks spread out their branches into a 
splendid crown, reveling in the abundance of sun¬ 
shine. How different their kind crowded together in 
the dense forest—tall, slender trunks, with few ill- 
shapen branches and starved crowns! 
Striking as these differences are, I am still more 
impressed by the various shapes and sizes of the 
leaves even on the same tree. The descriptions 
given in books on botany of the characteristics of dif¬ 
ferent species seem to me to be applicable to the 
leaves on the same tree. One so-called species ap¬ 
pears to grade into another. They are not distinct, 
as from my books I had supposed them to be. 
When I examine the leaves of the poplar and the 
willow I And like differences. Those at the top vary 
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