Page:The Atlantic Monthly Volume 6.djvu/277

 I860.] Among the Trees. 269 branches. Another of its forms is that and presenting their long shafts to the of a vast dome, as represented by those tendrils of the Trumpet Honeysuckle and trees that send up a single shaft to the the palmate foliage of the Climbing Fern, height of twenty feet or more, and then But the slender Palms, when solitary, af- extend their branches at a wide diver- ford but little shade. It is when they are gency and to a great length. The Elms standing in groups, their lofty tops meet- which are remarkable for their drooping ing and forming a uniform umbrage, that character are usually of this shape. At they afford any important protection from other times the Elm assumes the shape the heat of the sun. of a plume, presenting a singularly fan- In pictures of tropical scenery we see tastical appearance. It rises upwards, these trees standing on the banks of a with an undivided shaft, to the height of stream, or in the vicinity of the sea, near fifty feet or more, without a limb, and some rude hut constructed of Bamboo bending over with a gradual curve from and thatched with the broad leaves of about the middle of its height to its sum- the Fan Palm. In some warm countries mit, which is sometimes divided into two Nature affords the inhabitants an almost or three terminal branches. The whole gratuitous subsistence from the fruit of is covered from its roots to its summit with the different Palms, a plantation of a fringe of vine-like twigs, extremely slen- Dates and Cocoa-nuts supplying the prin- der, twisted and irregular, and resembling cipal wants of the owner and his family, a parasitic growth, Sometimes it is sub- during the life of the trees. But the divided at the usual height into three or Palm is not suggestive of the arts, for the four long branches, which are wreathed South is not the region of the highest civ- in the same manner, and form a com- ilization. Man's intelligence is greatest pound plume. in those countries in which he is obliged These fantastic forms are very beautl- to struggle with difficulties sufficient to ful, and do not impress one with the idea require the constant exercise of the mind of monstrosity, as we are affected by the and body to overcome them. Science sight of a Weeping Ash. Though the and Art have built their altars in the Elm has many defects of foliage, and is region of the Oak, and in valleys which destitute of those fine autumnal tints are annually whitened with snow, where which are so remarkable in some other labor invigorates the frame, and where trees, it is still almost without a rival in man's contention with the difficulties pre- the American forest. It presents a va- sented by the elements sharpens his in- riety in its forms not to be seen in any genuity and strengthens all his faculties, other tree, possessing the dignity of the 'Hence, while the Oak is the symbol of Oak without its ruggedness, and uniting hospitality and of the arts to which it has the grace of the slender Birch with the given its aid, the Palm symbolizes the vo- lofty grandeur of the Palm and the maj- luptuousness of a tropical clime and the esty of the Cedar of Lebanon. indolence of its inhabitants. Of the parasol-trees the North furnish- I have said that the North produces no es no true examples, which are witnessed parasol-trees ; but it should be remarked only in the Palms of the tropics. Not that all kinds of trees occasionally ap- many of our inhabitants have seen these proximate to this shape, when they have trees in their living beauty ; but all have grown compactly in a forest. The gen- become so familiar with them, as they are eral shape which they assume under these represented in paintings and engravings, conditions is what I have termed acci- that they can easily appreciate their ef- dental, because that shape cannot be nat- fect in the sunny landscapes of the South, ural which a growing body is forced to There they may be seen bending over take when cramped in an unnatural or fields tapestried with Passion-Flowers and constrained position. Trees when thus verdurous with Myrtles and Orange-trees, situated become greatly elongated ; their