TREES THAT BUILD CITIES 9 



Yet, in reality, such is true. In the streets of a 

 tree city there always are deadly germs flying 

 about. Scientists call them spores and their re- 

 sultant diseases blights or fungous growths, but the 

 fact is that they often seriously cripple or kill their 

 victims. A tree may have had a limb lopped off by 

 wind, ice or fire, or perhaps an obscure insect has 

 merely bored a tiny hole through its bark. At any 

 rate, the deadly germ gains entrance and the un- 

 fortunate must battle with an enemy which is at- 

 tacking its vitals. 



So far we have drawn a rather dark and pessi- 

 mistic picture of the tree-citizen's life. Needless 

 to say, it has its sunny side. There is no human 

 being so sunk in misery and degradation as to have 

 nothing to be thankful for; there is no poor shell of 

 a tree so encompassed by adversity that it cannot 

 give praise for the rain, the sunlight and the minis- 

 trations of friendly plants and animals. There is 

 much selfishness and hard-dealing, we might say 

 misunderstanding, in a tree city, but there is also 

 much kindness and charitableness. The strong 

 often protect the weak. Ferns and mosses owe their 

 luxuriance to the shade provided by their tree neigh- 

 bours. Myriads of the smaller plants, like the deli- 

 cate cypress vine, not only must receive protection 

 from the hot sun and strong wind at the feet of 



