xviii INTRODUCTION 



shade. They beautify the landscape. They purify 

 the air. They regulate drainage, preventing both 

 destroying droughts and devastating floods. By 

 exhaling moisture, they help to keep the atmos- 

 pheric humidity right. They break the force of 

 cyclonic winds. Their protection keeps the earth 

 soft and fresh and capable of growing things. They 

 shelter innumerable plants and animals which other- 

 wise would become extinct. Their absence or pres- 

 ence literally determines the shape and character 

 of continents as well as the type of men and ani- 

 mals which live on them. 



We do not claim for plants and trees the slight- 

 est equality with man; but we do claim that they 

 are beings which in a minor degree have all human 

 pleasures and understandings, and that in the future 

 life they will very likely be compensated for their 

 struggles and difficulties here in this world. The 

 ruthless destruction of them is due to man's ex- 

 alted opinion of himself, of considering them as 

 lifeless things without susceptibilities, without rea- 

 son, and without hope for a future. If man has 

 a soul, so have trees. 



Economically the trees are indispensable. Take 

 all the tree products out of our daily life and we 

 should be a long time readjusting ourselves. The 

 cocoanut palm is an example of a single tree which 



