40 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 



belongs to it. So the life or life principle in us builds up our bodies 

 little by little, and day by day, from our infancy, until we are grown-up 

 men and women. 



Now, the trees are living things like ourselves, and this gives them 

 special interest for us. Living things have what we call organs, or 

 instruments by means of which the life or life principle acts and per- 

 forms its work. So the trees have many such organs as we have, and 

 thereby resemble us. They have organs by which they take in food, 

 they have lungs by which they breathe, and they have organs of 

 digestion and a circulatory apparatus, by which their food is prepared 

 and carried to all parts of them and causes them to grow and reach 

 their perfection. 



The trees can not move about from place to place, as we and most 

 animals do. They would not be what they were meant to be nor of 

 such use to us as they now are if they could. But they are none the 

 less alive although they remain in the same place all the time. There 

 are some animals, such as the oyster, for example, which never move 

 about. There are also some human beings who, by accident or other- 

 wise, have been deprived of the power to walk or to move freely, 

 who yet are as truly alive as any. There are many plants also that 

 have a limited power of motion which shows a close resemblance to 

 the animals in this respect, as well as in others which have been men- 

 tioned. There are what we call the climbing plants, which climb trees 

 or walls just as truly as boys often do. Most plants love the light 

 and sunshine, and these climbing plants seem to climb up for the pur- 

 pose of getting out of the shade of other plants and securing to them- 

 selves the needed light. So they lay hold cf any upright object near 

 them, a stick or a tree, and winding around it or fastening their 

 tendrils to it, climb up. Here there is motion all the time, and it 

 can be seen very easily, especially when such a climber as the 

 morning-glory fastens upon a short support. When it gets to the top 

 of this it is not satisfied, but wants to go higher; so you may see it 

 reaching out sideways and feeling around to find a new support, and 

 it will sweep entirely around a circle, from right to left or from left to 

 right, in order to find something to. lay hold of by which it may rise 

 still farther. 



Then there are plants, like the Virginia creeper and the Japanese and 

 English ivies, which climb walls or other objects by means of tendrils, 

 which they stretch out like arms, and which sometimes have at their 

 ends little disks like the suckers which boys make out of leather and 

 with which they lift stones and other things. These disks are like so 

 many hands, by means of which the plants climb up and hold them- 

 selves firmly where they can have the light which they need. If you 

 try to detach one of these disks from the object to which it has fas- 

 tened itself you will find it quite difficult to do so. The Venus's flytrap 



