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page 80
about with brambles or other prickly shrubs) thrives, and
the tree grows, sometimes single, taking its own shape
without constraint, but for the most part compelled to
conform itself to some law imposed upon it by its
neighbours. From low and sheltered places, vegetation
travels upwards to the more exposed; and the young plants
are protected, and to a certain degree fashioned, by those
that have preceded them. The continuous mass of foliage
which would be thus produced, is broken by rocks, or by
glades or open places, where the browzing of animals has
prevented the growth of wood. As vegetation ascends, the
winds begin also to bear their part in moulding the forms of
the trees; but, thus mutually protected, trees, though not
of the hardiest kind, are enabled to climb high up the
mountains. Gradually, however, by the quality of the ground,
and by increasing exposure, a stop is put to their ascent;
the hardy trees only are left: those also, by little and
little, give way - and a wild and irregular boundary is
established, graceful in its outline, and never contemplated
without some feeling, more or less distinct, of the powers
of Nature by which it is imposed.
Contrast the liberty that encourages, and the law that
limits, this joint work of nature and time, with the
disheartening necessities, restrictions, and disadvantages
under which the artificial planter must proceed, even he
whom long observation and fine feelings have best qualified
for his task. In the first place his trees, how-
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