FOREST TREES. 



153 



native forests. If this be so, then surely it behooves the legislators of 

 this country to devise laws to protect future generations from similar 

 evils, by preventing the entire destruction of the native trees. There are 

 large tracts of Crown Lands yet in the power of the Government, and 

 reserves might be made or laws enacted by which the valuable products 

 ■of the soil might be in some measure protected. Let our wise, far- 

 seeing statesmen see to it. 



" A tree is a round volume bound in its own bark. Each page, 

 from heart to skin, registers a year of age and growth. The botanist 

 may not only read the record of these leaves, but read the whole 

 constitution of the tree, the laws that govern its vital functions ; may 

 study and understand the system of its veins and arteries, the circulation 

 •of its white blood (the sap) and the whole machinery and process of its 

 nutrition and growth. All this is written by the same finger that he 

 recognizes in man's physical system."— -Oa;/^. 77/', p. 212 Burritfs "■C/iips.''^ 



There is a quaint remark made by an old writer, on forest trees, 

 quoted by Evelyn : " Trees and woods have twice saved the world, 

 first by the Ark, then by the Cross, making full amends for the evil 

 fruit borne by the Tree in Paradise by that which was borne on the 

 Tree in Calvary." — Evelyti Sylva, Book IV, p. joo. 



The Canadian Pine — White Pine. — Finns Slrolnis, (L.) 



We paused amid the pines that stood 



The giants of the waste, 

 Tortured by storms to shapes as rude ; 



With stems lil^e serpents interlaced. 



How cahii it was, the silence there 



By such a chain was bound, 

 That e'en the busy Woodpecker 



Seemed stiller by the sound. — Shehey. 



In the brief outline which I propose to give of tht- native forest 

 trees of Canada, the Pine seems naturally to claim pre-eminence, both 

 on account of its noble growth, and its great value as a source of wealth 

 to the Dominion, whether we regard it from a commercial point of view or 

 as a means for affording employment to a large portion of the industrial 

 classes, especially the habitaus of Lower Canada. It would require the 

 knowledge of a practical merchant to calculate the value of our Pine 

 forests when summed up in all departments. Some idea may be 

 formed of the importance of this branch of trade by even a casual glance 

 at the vast piles of Pine boards and timbers, laths and shingles that are 

 ready at every port along the St. Lawrence and the great lakes, to freight 

 the vessels that are waiting to bear off the ever accumulating mass to 

 the destined markets — east and west ; to England or the United States. 

 To distant islands and foreign lands, our noble trees, in the form of 



