action of trees rooting themselves in inhospitable rocks,
stooping to look into ravines, hiding from the search of glacier winds,
reaching forth to the rays of rare sunshine, crowding down together to
drink at sweetest streams, climbing hand in hand among the difficult
slopes, opening in sudden dances among the mossy knolls, gathering into
companies at rest among the fragrant fields, gliding in grave procession
over the heavenward ridges--nothing of this can be conceived among the
unvexed and unvaried felicities of the lowland forest; while to all
these direct sources of greater beauty are added, first the power of
redundance, the mere quantity of foliage visible in the folds and on the
promontories of a single Alp being greater than that of an entire
lowland landscape (unless a view from some Cathedral tower); and to this
charm of redundance, that of clearer visibility--tree after tree being
constantly shown in successive height, one behind another, instead of
the mere tops and flanks of masses as in the plains; and the forms of
multitudes of them continually defined against the clear sky, near and
above, or against white clouds entangled among their branches, instead
of being confused in dimness of distance."[29]

There is much that is interesting in the relations of one species to
another. Many plants are parasitic upon others. The foliage of the Beech
is so thick that scarcely anything will grow under it, except those
spring plants, such as the Anemone and the Wood Buttercup or Goldilocks,
which flower early before the Beech is in leaf.

There are other cases in which the reason for the association of
species is less evident. The Larch and the Arolla (Pinus Cembra) are
close companions. They grow together in Siberia; they do not occur in
Scandinavia or Russia, but both reappear in certain Swiss valleys,
especially in the cantons of Lucerne and Valais and the Engadine.

Another very remarkable case which has recently been observed is the
relation existing between some of our forest trees and certain Fungi,
the species of which have not yet been clearly ascertained. The root
tips of the trees are as it were enclosed in a thin sheet of closely
woven mycelium. It was at first supposed that the fungus was attacking
the roots of the tree, but it is now considered that the tree and the
fungus mutually benefit one another. The fungus collects nutriment from
the soil, which passes into the tree and up to the leaves, where