6 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



from the earth, no less than the sequoia that looks down over 

 all the forest from more than ten times that height. 



Trees differ very widely in both size and appearance in 

 bark, leaves, wood structure and habit of growth. Some trees 

 have fragrant flowers like the magnolia, cherry or bass wood. 

 Others, such as the elm and the pines, have flowers that are 

 quite odorless and so small they are rarely noticed. The leaves 

 of some turn red in autumn like the maples and sumachs, 

 others yellow like the ash and tulip tree. Some have leaves so 

 gigantic they could be wrapped about one like a robe and 

 others leaves that are hardly bigger than your fingernail. Some 

 trees have wood so soft you can tear it apart in your hands 

 and others wood so hard no nail can pierce it and so heavy it 



sinks in water like a stone. In 

 age, too, trees differ tremen- 

 dously. The aspens are old trees 

 when they have reached forty 

 or fifty years while others at 

 that age are youngsters just get- 

 ting a start. Two hundred years 

 is perhaps an average age for 

 trees, although the sequoia lives 

 to see two and three thousand, 

 and the Dragon Tree of India 

 is said to be about five thousand 

 years old. 



Even in 

 the same lo- 

 cality trees 

 vary enor- 



