280 FORESTS OF AUSTRALIA. 



cession, we look in vain for the buds of spring which , 

 are at once the most beautiful and the most inspiring I 

 of nature's productions. 



Even the leafless groves have their charms ; and 

 he who has never studied it in the winter has no 

 proper knowledge of the beauty or even the form of 

 a tree. There is fully as much character in those 

 permanent parts as there is in the leaves or the 

 flowers. There is a character of species in the bark, 

 and there is a character of age. In the young shoot 

 it is smooth ; but as the tree gets old it is rifted and 

 thick. Except it be some of the sycamores, and 

 they are not natives, there are not trees that with 

 us annually cast their bark. In some countries it is 

 different. In New-Holland, for instance, all the 

 species of Eucalyptus, and they compose the prin- 

 cipal forests, cast their external bark down to the 

 white liber every year ; so that, though the leaves 

 are evergreen, there is a " fall of the bark" answer- 

 ing to our " fall of the leaf." 



When we compare those two operations, and then 

 consider the difference of the timber, we gain one 

 point of knowledge in the economy of vegetation. 

 The dismantling of the leaves is a protection to the 

 plant as a whole. It presents a smaller surface to 

 the wind, and the whole of it is wrapped up in a close 

 mantle from the old. The juices which, during 

 the summer action, were liquid, become firm in their 

 consistency and diminished in their bulk. The bark 

 is elastic, and not only follows the lessening of the 

 stem, but co-operates in bringing about that lessening. 

 This condensation in the wood of the tree, and it ex- 

 tends to all the wood which is in a state of activity, 

 necessarily generates heat, for heat is produced in 

 all cases of condensation; and thus, the colds of 

 early winter, which would destroy leaves, unless 

 those leaves had the glossy epidermis of evergreens, 

 has no injurious effect upon the stem. Indeed, the 

 epidermis of an evergreen leaf has more resemblance 





