wild-apple scrubs

bilby commented on the word wild-apple scrubs

"Thus cut down annually, it does not despair; but, putting forth two short twigs for every one cut off, it spreads out low along the ground in the hollows or between the rocks, growing more stout and scrubby, until it forms, not a tree as yet, but a little pyramidal, stiff, twiggy mass, almost as solid and impenetrable as a rock. Some of the densest and most impenetrable clumps of bushes that I have ever seen, as well, on account of the closeness and stubbornness of their branches as of their thorns, have been these wild-apple scrubs. They are more like the scrubby fir and black spruce on which you stand, and sometimes walk, on the tops of mountains, where cold is the demon they contend with, than anything else." - 'Wild Apples', Henry David Thoreau.

December 14, 2007

reesetee commented on the word wild-apple scrubs

Great excerpt, bilby! A "little, pyramidal, stiff, twiggy mass." Heehee.

December 14, 2007