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had made a sketch, and he was able to describe in detail the whole 
scene. By simply touching a tree he could name it. From that 
time he did all in his power to develop this gift, and at the present 
time he is able to name 800 British flowering plants, foreign trees 
and foreign weeds, simply by the sense of touch. 
Mr. Wilkinson stated that his first observations in sound were 
with the variations caused by ground covered with growing 
crops. Later he was attracted by the manner in which trees of 
every description gathered water during the rain and cast it from 
them either inwards towards the stem or outwards, “If I feel 
' a poppy leaf,” he said, “on a hot July morning it feels cold, but if 
I feel a leaf of London Pride at the same time it is quite warm, 
although the plants may be within a yard of each other. When 
I touch anything I notice whether it is warm or cold, and then 
ask myself Why?” 
Woodland Whispers 
During heavy showers he discovered that trees made different 
noises and he could tell them by the sound from the falling rain. 
The most silent tree, he believed, was the Pinus sylvestris. 
These trees only made an occasional hiss even in very severe — 
thunderstorms. The oak was the noisiest of trees in a storm, 
because it reflected the echoes by its leaves and also by its stem, 
and raindrops had a more drumlike effect upon it than upon any 
other tree. It was in a wood composed of oak trees that one 
could hear birds at their best. Among pine trees, owing to the 
softness of the wood, birds were not heard to the same ad- 
vantage, the wood absorbing the sound, whereas the oak gave it 
fuller play because of its hardness. The poplar tree, being sensi- 
tive to electricity, was almost silent in a thunderstorm, and yet 
after the storm was over it was more noisy, because the twigs 
were more elastic. “I think,” said Mr. Wilkinson, “that the 
sound of falling water is very fascinating to the.ear. I have 
particularly marked the contrast between sound in a place where 
rocks are bare and in other places where they are covered with 
moss. ‘This gives a kind of muffled sound to the musical splash 
of the water, and also to the songs of birds.” 
