VALUE OF TREES. 



south, were it gifted with language, we might hear a tale of Indian 

 palms. Every tree in nature makes itself felt in the good it does the 

 air, a beautiful return for the new loveliness it receives when its 

 branches and foliage are stirred and fluttered by the breeze. 



Trees supply man with every species of useful article, whether of 

 nourishment, or of clothing, or of medicine, and with timber whereof to 

 construct dwellings, and to build ships, so that even the sea shall be a 

 highway. Not that any single kind is of utility so multiform. Fruits 

 are supplied by some, as the olive and the fig, the coco-nut and the 

 date ; the delicate inner bark of the paper-mulberry furnishes the inha- 

 bitants of the South Sea Islands with materials for their simple apparel ; 

 medicines are afforded by innumerable species, and "wood" and 

 "tree" are words almost synonymous. It would be foolish and pre- 

 sumptuous to say that man could not exist without trees, because, were 

 there no such productions in existence, the infinite Benevolence would 

 supply his wants through some other medium. But constituted as man 

 is, and established as Trees and their functions and properties are, 

 it is plain that the present exquisite order and harmony of things in 

 respect to man's welfare, are most intimately and inseparably identified 

 with Trees. Thus, that when we would consider man and his privi- 

 leges, the amenities and the enjoyments that encircle life, the comforts 

 and the ornaments of his home, we cannot possibly do so, if we would 

 give all things their fair place, without keeping Trees also constantly 

 before the mind. 



Trees are indispensable to the picturesque. A great mountain, or 

 an extended plain, may have grandeur, though devoid of trees ; and it 

 is easy to conceive of richly-cultivated valleys, covered with crops of 

 corn, or unrolling infinite reaches of green pasture, and at the same 

 time without a tree, except a little one here and there, just sufficient to 

 serve as a landmark. But in the absence of trees, none of these places 

 could be picturesque, in the full and proper sense of the word. The 

 trees break the outlines ; they give variety of colours, movement also, 

 and shadows, and touch the imagination with agreeable sense of fruit- 

 fulness; or if they be timber and forest-trees, with the idea of noble- 

 ness and grandeur. They are to the landscape what living and moving 

 people are to the street, or to the interior of the hall or temple an 

 element that may be dispensed with, but at the expense of the finest 

 and most impressive influences. We may be overpowered by the stern 

 and solemn grandeur of a treeless waste, especially if it be composed 

 of mountains ; and the sensation is one that gives a variety not unac- 



