A year among the trees

by Wilson Flagg

With all these imperfections, it was more worthy of the honors it received from our predecessors than of its present neglect. It is one of the fairest of trees in the greenness of its youth, far surpassing any other poplar in its shape and in the density and general beauty of its foliage; but nearly all these old trees are gone, and few of the same species are coming up to supply their places. While I am writing, I see from my window the graceful spire of one solitary tree, towering above the surrounding objects of the landscape. It stands there, the symbol of decayed reputation; in its old age still retaining the primness of its youth, neither drooping under its infirmities nor losing in its decrepitude the fine lustre of its foliage. In its disgrace, it still bears itself proudly, as if conscious that its former honors were deserved, and not forgetting the dignity that becomes one who has fallen without dishonor.

There is no other tree that so pleasantly adorns the sides of narrow lanes and avenues, or so neatly accommodates itself to limited enclosures. Its foliage is dense and of the liveliest verdure, making delicate music to the soft touch of every breeze. Its terebinthine odors scent the vernal gales that enter our open windows with the morning sun. Its branches, always turning upwards and closely gathered together, afford a harbor to the singing birds, that make them a favorite resort; and its long, tapering spire, that points to heaven, gives an air of cheerfulness and religious tranquillity to village scenery.

THE ASPEN.

All lovers of nature admire the Aspen on account of its name, which, like that of the willow, is poetical, both from its musical sound and from association. There is no tree more celebrated in emblematical literature than the Aspen. Its sensitiveness to the least movement of the wind, its restless motions, as if some morbid occasion of disquiet unceasingly attended it, have given it a place in the poetry of all nations. But setting aside its symbolical meanings, its suggestions of fickleness and caprice, of levity and irresolution, of impatience and instability, and the use that has been made of it in satirical writings to symbolize the “inconstant temper of woman,” the beauty and motion of its foliage alone would always attract admiration. As the Aspen is the only tree whose leaf trembles when the wind is apparently calm, its gentle rustling is always associated with still summer weather.

THE GREAT AMERICAN ASPEN.

The Great American Aspen is a remarkable tree. In height it is unsurpassed by any of the poplars, though there is little about it that is attractive except its great height and its peculiar foliage. It is seldom of large dimensions, and it is without symmetry or elegance in its ramification. Its branches seem to have a straggling growth, not extending so widely, nor at so acute an angle, as those of the poplar. Its foliage is its principal ornament. This would be very dense if it were not for the scarcity of small branches, which are so far apart as to give the tree a meagre appearance, even when full of leaves. The leaf is beautiful, being round ovate, deeply serrate, and put in motion by the slightest breeze. As a standard the Great Aspen is not highly prized. It is easily broken by the wind, and is without symmetry,—a necessary quality in a tree of the poplar tribe, which possesses none of the properties of grandeur. But when the trees of this species form a dense wood, they are unsurpassed in the beauty of their perfectly straight shafts, with their smooth, greenish bark extending upward to an immense height without a branch. The Great Aspen is very common in the woods of Maine and New Hampshire, where the second growth of timber predominates.

The specific name of this tree, grandidentata, always affected me ludicrously, when I considered that it was applied to it merely from the deep indentations on the edge of its serrate leaves. Excelsa would be a more appropriate name for the species, on account of its superior height.

THE SMALL AMERICAN ASPEN.

This tree resembles the great aspen in almost every particular except size. It is a very common tree in our woods, but is so little esteemed that it has received no protection and is seldom planted by our roadsides. It is found chiefly in copses on the sides of some gravelly bank, growing almost alone, with a few cherry-trees and white birches, and an undergrowth of brambles and whortleberry-bushes. It is often abundant on little dry elevations that rise above an oak wood standing on a clay level. It is remarkable for its slenderness of habit and the smoothness of its pale-green bark, which becomes whitish and rough as the tree grows old. Its principal defect is the thinness of its foliage and spray; its small branches are few and far apart, and its leaves small and sparse. Yet the beauty of each individual leaf is unrivalled. It is heart-shaped, finely serrate, and when young is fringed with a soft, silky, and purple down. It would be difficult to select a branch from any other tree, when in leaf, so beautiful as a spray of the Small Aspen.

I do not understand the botanical difference between the Aspen and the poplar, except that the former includes certain species that possess in an exaggerated degree the family characteristic of a tremulous leaf. The Aspen, however, is the proverbial tree, the tree of romance and fable. Hence we regard it with more interest, though in America the two aspens fall short of the poplars in almost every point of elegance and beauty.