trees
are
alike
in
having a tendency to horizontal branching,but each
of
them has individuality in holding the snow.
The
wide-spreading vigor.
of
white
oak
receives it, like allweather, serenely, effortlessly;
and
the bulging biceps of the
bur
oak with its corky twigs
and
rough
bark
make the snowseem a sweater
pulled
carelessly across the shoulders
of
afull-back between quarters. On the hawthorn the snow
IS
aloosely crocheted shawl
of
wool, but on the ironwood it isprecise lacework.-The evergreens have distinctive ways with snow. Those flatoverlapping shelves
mark
Colorado spruce, while the next treeproclaims itself Norway spruce
by
its manner
of
holding snowon its ridges
and
letting
it
slide
from
pendent twigs.
The
hemlock accepts it as
an
unnecessary adjunct to
her
sufficiency
of
grace,
and
lets it slide
from
relaxed finger tips. White
pine
turns its needles down like a fringe below
the
snow,
but
mugopine keeps its needles erect,
uplifting
neat muffins
in
itsfingers. '.But
for
all
the beauty
of
snow on
our
evergreens we must.not
let
it lie too heavily,
or
broken branches will
mar
futureformal
symmetry. True,
inthe
north woods
and
on the mountain tops, they
bear
their snow without man's interference, buthow few
of
them
are
symmetrical in old
age,
or
need to be.Especially do
the
saucer-shaped evergreens, such as
yew,.
common juniper, and Pfitzer juniper, -need help to preventbreakage.Some fruits that persist through the winter have interesting ways with the snow. Each brown raceme
of
ninebark
wearsan
elf
cap. And high-bush
cranberry
offers
brilliant
clustered
(
drupes a
la
mode to
any
itinerant flock
of
cedar
waxwin:gs, theonly
birds that
seem to appreciate them
..
2
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