uickly to a wonderful height.
When the woodmen cut down a fir plantation in the Chace there was a
young oak among it that overtopped the firs, and yet its diameter was
so small that it looked no larger than a pole; and the supporting
boughs of the firs being now removed it could not uphold itself, but
bent so much from the perpendicular as to appear incapable of
withstanding a gale. The bark of the oak, when stripped and stacked,
requires fine weather to dry it, much the same as hay, so that a wet
season like 1879 is very unfavourable.

In the open glades of the Chace there were noble clumps of beeches,
and if you walked quietly under them in the still October days you
might hear a slight but clear and distinct sound above you. This was
caused by the teeth of a squirrel nibbling the beech-nuts, and every
now and then down came pieces of husk rustling through the coloured
leaves. Sometimes a nut would fall which he had dropped; and yet, with
the nibbling sound to guide the eye, it was not always easy to
distinguish the little creature. But his tail presently betrayed him
among the foliage, far out on a bough where the nuts grew. The husks,
if undisturbed, remain on all the winter and till the tree is in full
green leaf again; the young nuts are formed about midsummer.

The black poplars are so much like the aspen as to be easily mistaken,
especially as their leaves rustle in the same way. But the true aspen
has a smooth bark, while that of the black poplar is scored or rough.
Woodmen always call the aspen the 'asp,' dropping the termination. In
the spring the young foliage of the black poplar has a yellow tint.
When they cut down the alder poles by the water and peeled them, the
sap under the bark as it dried turned as red as if stained. The paths
in spring were strewn with the sheaths of the young leaves and buds
pushing forth; showers of such brown sheaths came off the hawthorn
with every breeze. These, with the catkins, form the first fall from
tree and bush. The second is the flower, as the May, and the
horse-chestnut bloom, whose petals cover the ground. The third fall is
that of the leaf, and the fourth the fruit.

On the Scotch fir the young green cones are formed about the beginning
of June, and then the catkin adjacent to the cone is completely
covered with quantities of pale yellow farina. If handled, it covers
the fingers as though they had been dipped in sulphur-flour; shake the
branch and it flies off, a