298 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 



The simple facts, as stated by Mr. Meehan, have so great sig- 

 nificance that no intelligent man who thinks of them can fail to 

 appreciate the immense influence of trees on climates ; and every 

 suburban home may be made to feel in some degree their ameliora- 

 ting effect. 



In riding to a suburban home from business in a city, we 

 have felt the effect of mere grass alone, without trees, in cooling 

 the air in hot summer days. Narrow streets, with high houses, are 

 much cooler at such times than broad streets and open unshaded 

 ground ; and the first feeling in leaving a city office and riding 

 across the bare suburbs that usually intervene between the busi- 

 ness part of a city and its pleasant tree-embowered residences, 

 is, that the city street is the most comfortable place. But when 

 we reach a grass-covered field a trifle less dryness in the air is per- 

 ceptible ; and when the shadows of trees are reached, there will be 

 a difference of several degrees between the air under them and 

 that in the open highway ; and not merely a difference of tem- 

 perature as indicated by the thermometer, but also an increased 

 moisture that gives the sensation of a greater difference than the 

 thermometer measures. 



