THE INNER ORGANIZATION OP TREES. 



of the tree. Some of the phytons were neither green nor 

 gorgeous in their apparel, their external appearance was in- 

 significant, and the task allotted to them in the labor of 

 construction was small ; but it was nevertheless, physiologi- 

 cally speaking, an important one : for phytons, even when 

 for want of a proper supply of sap and sunlight they can pro- 

 duce nothing but starveling shoots, or take the form of stip- 

 ules or bud-scales, are nevertheless necessary in the places 

 where they are situated, in order to develope other parts 

 which are of more service to the tree. They form a link in 

 the chain of mutual labor. And not only individually do they 

 receive support from the tree, but each labors according to the 

 extent of its capacity in yielding the tree an equivalent, in 

 ensuring it the means of protecting and sustaining its life. 



Even the little cell, through the increase of which the 

 whole mass of the tree itself is formed, plainly teaches us 

 this great moral lesson. According to Physiologists, man 

 himself was, at the commencement of life, nothing but a 

 single cell. The inner organization of trees, and the pecu- 

 liarities of their cell-life, has therefore some claim on his 

 consideration. 



Variety of form and function is characteristic of all the 

 parts of the tree, and not less varied are the gifts of the in- 

 dividuals constituting the population of a city or country. 

 It is this variety of gift, this division and association of 

 labor for a common object, which has created society. And 

 there can be no growth or progress either of individuals or 

 communities without labor. 



Let me define what I understand by the term labor. To 

 many persons this word conveys ideas of nothing but suffer- 

 ing, constraint, and fatigue. This is not what I mean. I 

 I call labor any useful employment of our physical and intel- 

 lectual powers ; some occupation of mind or body, no matter 

 what, by means of which we insure our own progress and 

 the advance of society. This lesson is taught, not only by 

 all the individual parts of the noble forest tree, but by every 

 flower and blade of grass : in fact by all the individuals of 

 the vegetable world. All are at work, and what is more to 

 the purpose, usefully employed. 



