156 ARBOR DAY 



one; but with that and a little sense-perception, 

 our knowledge ends. Any one who could tell 

 us just what a leaf is, and how by some strange 

 action of air and earth and sunlight it comes to 

 be a leaf his would transcend the wisdom of 

 the ages. 



Trees are common. Yes, but how long did it 

 take Mother Nature, working incessantly, to form 

 out of the low, one-celled plant, cruder and simpler 

 than any grass or weed we know, the beautiful, 

 noble monarch of the plant kingdom which we call 

 a tree? 



" The groves were God's first temples." And each 

 tree is a temple for birds and bees. Its living col- 

 umns are overlaid with the ruby and topaz of summer 

 sunlight and with the pearl and diamond dust of 

 winter. It is a shrine where the spirit of man may 

 look up. It is a monument to what has been, a 

 heavenward pointing testimony to the Power that 

 lies at the heart of things. 



TREES* 



BY JULIA ROGERS 



THE meaning of trees in a landscape the beauty 

 value of them is oftenest overlooked by those 

 who have always seen them. When crossing such 



*From " The Tree Book," Doubleday, Page & Co. 



