212 THE MOUNTAIN. 



wounded and wearied from the dusty roads and burning 

 fields of the world ; and while the sacred retreat of the de- 

 votee of religion and beauty, they invite the sick and suffer- 

 ing in body and soul, the lacerated and riven in spirit and 

 heart, to wander in their life-renewing shades. Why were 

 the temples of ^sculapius built in groves and on mountains 

 outside of towns and cities ? A profound wisdom looms 

 forth from the institutions and rites of the ancients, and dear 

 perpetually to the gods is the soundness of the bodies and 

 souls of mortals ; the classical dream of ^sculapius and his 

 daughter Hygeia shining as the prophecy of the light of 

 true science dawning and to beam forever. 



Leaving the poetry, symbolism, and far-off spiritual sig- 

 nificance of the tree, turn to the tree itself. Botanists 

 have distributed the trees that grow on the surface of the 

 planet into a series of belts or zones ; as " certain climatal 

 conditions are requisite for the growth of trees, there exist 

 certain portions of the earth's surface destitute of woods, 

 chiefly on account of cold. The tree-limit illustrates this.* 

 At the north this limit is sometimes tl° north latitude, and 

 in the "southern hemisphere it extends as far as the conti- 

 nents, "f These zones are named, commencing at the north, 

 1st, The zone of conifers ; 2d, The zone of amentaceous or 

 catkin-bearing trees ; 3d, The zone of multiform woods ; and 

 4th, The zone of the rigid-leaved woods. J 



These belts are again designated, by others, the zone of 

 conifers, the zone of deciduous, and the zone of evergreen 

 woods.§ 



By examining this highly interesting and attractive sub- 

 ject, it will be discovered that with the geographic distribu- 

 tion of plants is connected the whole destiny and progress 

 of the human being, and if "necessity is (not) the mother 

 of the world," she establishes eternal limitations to all 

 things, and is at least that dread power that fixes the 

 fates of men. 



* Schouw. f Idem. J Idem. | Schleiden. 



