136 NATURAL HISTORY 



there. Every breeze that moves its leaves feeds it, 

 the rocks crumble beneath to give it strength. And 

 as it rises, every change shows its adaptations to all 

 the forces that surround it. 



Go through our northern forests and look at the 

 broad-leaved trees the maple, oak, and elm. In 

 summer they are filled with foliage, on some of the 

 largest are acres of foliage. Now look at their 

 spreading and dividing limbs. Did they hold their 

 leaves, a single winter's snow would split their 

 branches from the trunks, destroy their beauty, and 

 in the end they must perish. But the first frost of 

 autumn paints the green leaves with gorgeous col- 

 ors, and the autumn winds shake them from the 

 trees, that their naked limbs may be presented to 

 the frosts and ice and winds of winter. In sum- 

 mer, they must have the broad leaves to drink in 

 gases from the air ; in their winter's rest they 

 would prove their destruction, and they shake them 

 off, and not a single broad-leaved tree, in our north- 

 ern climes, holds its foliage in the winter months. 

 Look now at the evergreens, the spruce, and fir, 

 and pine, with needle-leaves, and with trunks that 



