280 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



by the arrival of birds from the North, to whom 

 our latitudes are what Florida is to shivery people 

 of elegant leisure. In the vicinity of Norfolk and 

 of Cincinnati the bird-life of the leafless woods is 

 almost as full and intense as that of the summer. 

 But when the wind swoops down from the North, 

 and deciduous trees afford no protection, the ever- 

 greens offer the birds a refuge in the time of 

 trouble. Here they find both shelter and food, 

 for after the " hips and the haws are all gone," 

 and snow has covered the earth, a living can still 

 be eked out, thanks to the juniper berries and the 

 seeds of the cone-bearing trees. 



Cedars and junipers make an especially effective 

 wind-screen, and on the eve of a bitter night little 

 birds gather in numbers on the branches of these 

 trees, close to the trunk. 



The habit of growth of the cone-bearers is 

 similar to that of the oaks and maples and other 

 kindred of the rose. The ascending stream of 

 water from the roots passes through the younger 

 wood, while the descending stream of sap from the 

 leaves moves through the inner bark. The tree 

 grows thicker as it grows older, and between bark 

 and wood, each growing season, there is a ring of 

 actively-dividing cells which are building up new 



