THE TREES OF OLD ENGLAND. 



TREES constitute an order of nobility ; for nature has its aristocracy 

 as well as mankind. If there be "ancient and noble" families in a 

 nation or a community, still older, and inheriting yet more dignity, are 

 the families of living things by which man is encircled. He can claim 

 no honour on the score of descent or genealogy that is not already 

 merited by some patrician of the world of plants ; and this not so 

 much because Trees are the same to-day that they were in the begin- 

 ning, as by reason of their absolute excellence, their serene and invul- 

 nerable perfection. 



Trees are sanitary agents in the economy of the world we live in. 

 By the process of "assimilation," which means the abstraction of 

 carbon from the atmosphere, in order that, in due time, and through 

 certain vital processes, it may be converted into wood and other vege- 

 table substances, by the process of "assimilation," we say, trees, 

 through the medium of their leaves, preserve the air in a condition fit 

 for human breathing. Herbaceous vegetation greatly contributes to 

 this great end ; but the result is mainly referable to arborescent plants, 

 their size and extent of leaf- surface being so prodigiously large, when 

 compared with that of the former kind. We little think when we 

 inhale the fresh air, and quaff it upon the hills, like so much invisible 

 and aerial wine, that its purity and healthfulness come of the glorious 

 Trees. But so it is. Nor have we merely the trees of our own 

 country to think of and be thankful to. The air that we breathe in 

 England to-day has been purified for us perhaps a thousand miles 

 away. If the wind blow from the north, we may be grateful to the 

 Scandinavian birches ; if from the west, it is quite possible that the 

 magnolias of North America may have helped to strain it ; if from the 



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