212 THE MOUNTAIN. 



wounded and wearied from the dusty roads and burning 

 fields of the world ; and while the sacred retreat of the de- 

 votee of religion and beauty, they invite the sick and suffer- 

 ing in body and soul, the lacerated and riven in spirit and 

 heart, to wander in their life-renewing shades. Why were 

 the temples of ^Esculapius built in groves and on mountains 

 outside of towns and cities ? A profound wisdom looms 

 forth from the institutions and rites of the ancients, and dear 

 perpetually to the gods is the soundness of the bodies and 

 souls of mortals ; the classical dream of JEsculapius and his 

 daughter Hygeia shining as the prophecy of the light of 

 true science dawning and to beam forever. 



Leaving the poetry, symbolism, and far-off spiritual sig- 

 nificance of the tree, turn to the tree itself. Botanists 

 have distributed the trees that grow on the surface of the 

 planet into a series of belts or zones ; as " certain climatal 

 conditions are requisite for the growth of trees, there exist 

 certain portions of the earth's surface destitute of woods, 

 chiefly on account of cold. The tree-limit illustrates this.* 

 At the north this limit is sometimes 71 north latitude, and 

 in the " southern hemisphere it extends as far as the conti- 

 nents, "f These zones are named, commencing at the north, 

 1st, The zone of conifers ; 2d, The zone of amentaceous or 

 catkin-bearing trees ; 3d, The zone of multiform woods ; and 

 4th, The zone of the rigid-leaved woods. J 



These belts are again designated, by others, the zone of 

 conifers, the zone of deciduous, and the zone of evergreen 

 woods. 



By examining this highly interesting and attractive sub- 

 ject, it will be discovered that with the geographic distribu- 

 tion of plants is connected the whole destiny and progress 

 of the human being, and if " necessity is (not) the mother 

 of the world," she establishes eternal limitations to all 

 things, and is at least that dread power that fixes the 

 fates of men. 



* Schouw. f Idem. { Idem. % Schleidcn. 



