2 VALUE OP TREES. 



to arborescent plants, their extent of leaf-surface 

 being so prodigious, 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 wine, that its purity and healthful- 

 ness 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 for. The air we breathe 

 in England to-day has been purified perhaps a 

 thousand miles away. If the wind blow from the 

 north, we may be thankful 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 south, were it gifted with 

 language, we might hear news from the orange 

 groves. 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 material for 

 clothing, or of medicine j 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 inner bark of the paper mul- 

 berry furnishes the inhabitants of the South Sea 

 Islands with materials for their simple apparel ; 



