STUDY V. 307 



I have fince refleéled on what the fhepherds 

 told me, refpeding the heat of the woods, and on 

 what I myfelf had experienced ; and I have, in 

 fad:, remarked that, in the Spring, all plants are 

 more forward in the vicinity of woods, and that 

 you find violets in flower on their borders much 

 earlier than you gather them on the open plain, 

 or on a naked hill. Forefts, then, flicker the land 

 from cold, in the North j but what is equally won- 

 derful, they flicker it likewife from the heat in 

 warm countries. Thefe two oppofite effeds are 

 produced entirely from the different forms and 

 difpolition of their leaves. In the North, thofe of 

 the fir, the larch, the pine, the cedar, the juniper, 

 are fmall, glofly, and varniflied ; their delicacy, 

 their varnifli, and the endlefs variety of their di* 

 redion, refle6l the heat around them a thoufand 

 different ways : they produce nearly the fame ef- 

 feds as the hair of the animals of the North, 

 whofe furs are warm in proportion as the hair is 

 fine and gloffy. Befides, the leaves of fome fpe- 

 cies, as of the fir and of the birch, are perpendi- 

 cularly fufpended from the branches by long 

 moveable membranes, fo that with every breath of 

 the wind they refledt all around the rays of the Sun, 

 like fo many mirrors. 



In the South, on the contrary, the palms, the 

 tallipot, the cocoa, the banana, bear large leaves, 



X 2 which. 



