YOUNGER YEARS OP A PLANT. 185 



growing in arid places, or high mountains, have leaves 

 shaped like cups, with broad channels to conduct the pre- 

 cious water of dew and rain to their roots. In trees 

 bearing cones they are dry, pointed and narrow ; they 

 seldom rustle, being silent ; but, as a compensation, they 

 are ever green. Their high polish enables them to reflect 

 what little heat they can gather in northern lands, whilst 

 the light may still pass between them with ease. On 

 catkin-bearing trees they are broad and tender, so that 

 the gentlest wind gives them motion and sound, a charm 

 wholly wanting in evergreens ; but their time is short, and 

 they perish after a season ! As we approach the equator, 

 we find leaves without polish, so as to reflect no heat, 

 placed horizontally to form a shading roof. They grow 

 broader and larger, with every degree, until the cocoa-palm 

 has them more than one foot square, and a single leaf 

 of the tallipot-palm of Ceylon can cover a whole family. 

 Those of the waxy palm of South America are, moreover, 

 so impermeable to moisture, that they are used as cover- 

 ings for houses, and have been known to stand all the 

 vicissitudes of the weather for more than twenty years, 

 without being renewed. They thus form a screen by day, 

 a tent by night, and become eminently useful in a land 

 which is half the year burnt by a scorching sun, and the 

 other half completely under water. In like manner leaves 

 change according to the wants of the tree, whose ornament 

 and best servants they are at the same time. The oak 

 of our mountains has thick, broad leaves that of the sea- 

 shore, which we call willow and live oak, is satisfied with 

 thin narrow leaves. The honeysuckle changes them at will 



