72 FORESTRY IN SPAIN. 



* What a beautiful world is the world of plants ! and what 

 a time man has lived without giving to them the attention 

 they claim, believing them to be the gratuitous gift of 

 nature manna which might be enjoyed without any 

 trouble about its preservation ! A silent and solitary 

 world living by itself alone : a beautiful carpet which 

 covers the earth, and forms, with the blue of the heavens, 

 a landscape of charming lovliness such as no painters 

 not even the most illustrious have been able to depict 

 and perpetuate upon their canvas ! Overwhelming is the 

 thought in considering only the infinity of the numbers 

 of the individuals of which it is composed, from the gigantic 

 Wellingtonia, whose head is lost in the clouds at the 

 height of a hundred metres, and the twisting twining 

 Calamus, a thousand yards in length, to the Moss and 

 the Lichen, which cover with green tints the abandoned 

 lordly towers ; or the Algae, which float lightly on the 

 waters of the murmuring brooks. Just as they exist on 

 the burning sands of Africa, and quench by their juice the 

 thirst of the lost caravan, and with their shade protect 

 from the burning rays of the sun, and cover and save 

 from the terrible Sirocco, are they found likewise in 

 reduced size in the regions of perpetual snow. 



' It is they which mainly contribute to keep the atmosphere 

 in fit condition for the support of animal life. During 

 the day their cellules, which contain chlorophyll, h'x the 

 carbon for the growth of the plant, and set free the oxygen, 

 for which great blessing we are indebted to them as a 

 boon, as thus we owe to them life and unappreciable 

 jov, to which we cling the faster the nearer we are about 

 to finish our pilgrimage and go. 



* Vegetables are also vast deposits of solar heat, which they 

 store up and keep by their chemical action, assimilating 

 it for their growth, and which they subsequently give forth 

 entirely and without reserve, so that, as was affirmed by 

 the unfortunate Lavosier : In nature nothing is lost, and 



