84 TREES. 



green heaven, have a power of ennobling and elevat- 

 ing the soul, such as all who have lived among such 

 are more or less clearly conscious of, and which is to- 

 tally impossible to little ones. 



In England, the trees are all of the class called 

 " exogenous," that is to say, they have numerous and 

 spreading branches ; the leaves, when held between 

 the eye and the light, are found to be marked in every 

 portion by a delicate network of green lines, techni- 

 cally called the " veins ; " and upon the outside of 

 the trunk there is bark, which can be removed like 

 the peel of an orange. When one of these exogenous 

 or branching trees is cut dawn, or if a branch be 

 lopped off, the exposed surface, on being smoothened 

 horizontally, shows elegant concentric circles, sur- 

 rounding a central point, which in young parts of the 

 tree indicates a column of living pith. The concen- 

 tric circles announce the age of the tree or branch, 

 which is just as many years old in that part as there 

 are rings. In its earliest stage, or while only in its 

 first season of growth, the stem of the seedling tree 

 consists only of pith and an enclosing skin. Woody 

 matter is gradually prepared, and this becomes depos- 

 ited in a layer between the pith and the skin, which 

 latter now assumes the solidity of bark ; and should 

 the stem be cut through at Christmas, or at the end of 

 its first year, the first of these annual rings will be 

 plainly visible. Every successive year this process is 



