10 THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES 



stronger friends, but must lean and climb upon 

 friendly neighbours in order to get a chance in life. 

 Plants have a wonderful regard for friendship, and 

 are by nature extremely sociable. They invariably 

 group themselves according to their likes and dis- 

 likes. 



Certain types of trees show a wonderful maternal 

 interest in their children. We ordinarily think of 

 plants of all kinds as mechanically producing seeds 

 and then placing their entire development in the 

 hands of Mother Nature. In some cases this is 

 so, as it is in human families; but there are just 

 as many plant-mothers who show the utmost favour 

 and solicitude for their children. 



Practically all trees see that their seed-babies are 

 carefully covered up with a warm blanket of leaves 

 and bark which also will furnish nourishment when 

 the infants begin to send their tiny stalks up into 

 the air. The screw-pine frequently drops its seeds 

 on the fallen trunk of some dead neighbour. There 

 they sit astride of perhaps their grandmother's back 

 and, sending forth roots, grow to young maturity on 

 the very substance of an earlier member of the fam- 

 ily. A more striking example of a mother's self- 

 sacrifice is shown by the sweet-gum, sometimes 

 called gum-amber, which actually plants seeds 

 within itself. The tree first grows hollow within, 



