170 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



" Then, wherefore, wherefore were they made, 



And dyed in rainbow light, 

 All fashioned with supremest grace, 

 Upspringiug day and night? 



11 Springing in valleys green and low, 



And on the mountains high, 

 And in the silent wilderness, 

 Where no man passes by ? 



" Our outward life requires them not ; 



Then wherefore had they birth ? 

 To minister delight to man, 

 To beautify the earth, 



<( To comfort man to whisper hopo 



Whene'er his faith is dim ; 

 For who so careth for the flowers 

 Will much more care for him." 



But we must not say " farewell " to our botanical 

 study without a passing glance at a few out of the large 

 collection of sections before us. Here is one of the 

 Wellingtonia giants of California. It is a triple section, 

 showing the most beautiful variety of tissue in the woody 

 bundles of fibres from which, in this class of trees, pulp 

 is now made and is afterwards converted into writing- 

 paper. The tree from which this specimen was cut is said 

 to have been the largest in the world, growing to the 

 astonishing height of 450 feet, that is, about one-eighth 

 higher than the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. It was 112 

 feet in circumference. Looking at this interesting speci- 

 men, where all the fibres interlace each other, exhibiting 

 the pitted ducts for which this class of timber is so 

 famous, and which are test objects for the higher magni- 

 fying powers, what a world of beauty it must have 

 been ! One of this family was recently cut down by some 

 ruthless hand, and, had it a tongue, it would have unfolded 

 a tale which would have taken some time indeed to relate. 



