WONDERS FROM NATURE'S BOOK 237 



lizards, snakes, alligators and crocodiles of our 

 time. 



The world was all this time getting ready for a new 

 form of life. Man was coming, and his four-footed 

 friends were coming; and many changes must still 

 take place before the world could be a home for 

 them. 



With the sun shining brightly between the clouds, 

 the seasons came. There could have been no summer 

 or winter when the thick clouds hung so heavily 

 about the world. They kept the atmosphere close 

 and warm like that in a greenhouse; and strange as 

 it may seem, those immense trees that made the first 

 coal tell us that there were no seasons then. For there 

 are no rings in their fossil trunks to show any signs 

 of yearly growth. But the later rocks that show us 

 sun cracks, show us tree trunks with annual rings 

 like those our trees now have. We know that there 

 was summer and winter then in the temperate zones, 

 because the trees of that time grew for half of the 

 year and rested the other half. 



So, with a change of climate trees like ours com- 

 menced to grow. Besides those early conifers, the 

 oaks, maples, elms, and willows, the walnut and the 

 sassafras trees began to clothe the earth with their 

 graceful, swaying branches and fluttering leaves. 



Then the flowers came. They did not at first have 

 all the lovely colors that we now see. They were 

 green in color, like the leaves. 



Do you remember what has helped so much to de- 

 velop the bright colors of the wild flowers? Yes, it 

 was the bees. It should not seem strange, then, 



