In my Nature Notebook...

"Instead of calling on some scholar, I paid many a visit to particular trees, of kinds which are rare in this neighborhood, standing far away in the middle of some pasture, or in the depths of a wood or swamp, or on a hilltop; such as ... the beech, which has so neat a bole and beautifully lichen-painted, perfect in all its details, of which, excepting scattered specimens, I know but one small grove of sizable trees left in the township, supposed by some to have been planted by the pigeons that were once baited with beechnuts near by; it is worth the while to see the silver grain sparkle when you split this wood..." Thoreau


(There are four of these great trunks in a row I must pass on every walk into town.  They are like great Elephant legs, like Ganesh on a tightrope and I would know this tree anywhere now.  I hope these are never split for fire wood.)

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