THE TREE MASTERPIECE OF PLANT WORLD 7 



mously in structure and 

 habit of growth and it is 

 by these characteristics that 

 botanists divide them into 

 different species, genera, 

 and families. The very fact 

 that trees do possess such 

 widely-differing character- 

 istics of growth, fruit, 

 bark, and wood has always 

 enabled them to serve 

 widely and well the various and numerous needs of man. 



Yet all trees, different as they seem to be in structure and 

 habit are governed by the same laws of life and growth, and in 

 spite of their outward differences are closely akin in their need 

 for food, in their manner of growth and living. Nor are these 

 needs so greatly different from man's needs. Both men and 

 trees come into being with the power of growth and of creat- 

 ing their own kind. Both require food, air, and moisture. Both 

 struggle to conquer all obstacles that come between them and 

 their destinies and both at the end must die. Yet with the 

 trees old age seems more a question of size than of years. For 

 some, like the spruces, may live under dense shade cut off from 

 the sunlight and hardly able to grow at all. A century may go 

 by and the tree will be barely thicker than a man's wrist. Then, 

 if the larger trees are cut from about it, this same spruce will 

 put on rapid growth and become as large as its unshaded fel- 

 lows. But after it has reached its full growth, it remains sta- 

 tionary for some years, then from one cause or another dies. 



Trees by growing and by producing seed bring a twofold 



