Thus, along the tragic old road to Tokkaido, I have seen the pines sustain the onslaught of the powers of the air. In vain the wind of the ocean lays them low. Clinging with every root to the stony soil, the invincible trees writhe, twist upon themselves, and,--like a man braced on all fours, who butts with his head, kicks in all directions, and hunches himself together,--they seem to grapple with the antagonist, to re-establish themselves, and to straighten up under the Protean assaults of the monster who would overcome them. All along the solemn beach I have passed their heroic lines in review on this somber evening, and watched all the vicissitudes of the battle. One leans backward, and stretches toward the sky a monstrous panoply of halberds and shields which he brandishes in Briarean fists; another, full of wounds, mutilated as by blows of clubs, and bristling on all sides with jagged stumps, still wars and waves a few feeble boughs; another, which seems thrown upon its back, still battling against the dust, maintains itself on the powerful buttress of its gathered haunches; and finally, I saw giants and princes who, massively settling upon their muscular loins, by the reiterated efforts of their Herculean arms, continued to hold their ground on all sides against the tumultuous enemy. I have still to speak of the foliage. If I compare to the pines the species of trees that flourish in fertile earth, in rich and mellow soil, I discover these four characteristics in them; that the proportion of leaf to wood is greater; that the leaf is deciduous; that, flattened, it shows an obverse and reverse side; and, finally, that the foliage, growing upon the boughs, diverging from a common center, is arranged like a single bouquet. The pine grows in dry and stony soil; therefore its absorption of the elements which nourish it is less immediate, and necessitates on its part a stronger and completer elaboration, a greater functional activity,--and, if I may so put it, more personal. As it is limited in its supply of water, it does not expand like a chalice. This one that I observe divides its foliage, spreads a handful on every side. Instead of leaves which receive the rain, these are tufts of little tubes which reach into the surrounding dampness and absorb it. And that is why,--independent of the seasons, sensitive to more continuous and subtle influences,--the pine shows a perennial foliage.