THB CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 189 



last escape the hand of decay and death, but that 

 wreath of incorruptible glory and victory in the 

 heavenly mansions, which shall be gathered from the 

 tree of life. 



To the Christian Naturalist, as well as to the 

 Christian Moralist, there are many ideas suggested by 

 the fallen leaves which every where bestrew his path. 

 He sees, in what these once were, another proof that 

 the divine hand has made nothing in vain. These 

 now withered, but once vital members of the trees 

 around him, were wisely intended to answer the same 

 purpose in the vegetable economy, as the lungs do in 

 the human body, and as the external skin or covering 

 does through which it perspires.* They remained 

 however long enough to imbibe that portion of the 

 atmospheric air which was necessary for the circulation 

 of a due supply of sap, and the formation of the new 



* The fall of the leaf commences for the most part with the 

 colds of autumn, and is accelerated by the frosts of winter. 

 But there are some trees which retain their leaves throughout 

 the winter, though changed to a dull and dusky brown, and 

 may be called ever-clothed trees, as the beech. And there are 

 others that retain their verdure throughout the year, and are 

 denominated evergreens, as the holly. The leaves of both sorts 

 ultimately fall in the spring. Sir J. E. Smith considers that 

 leaves are thrown off by a process similar to that of the slough- 



