322 Personality of Trees [THIRD WEEK 



sometimes bending their trunks down until their branches 

 were within reach. 



On a walk through the woods and fields to-day, how 

 seldom do we find a dead insect! When sick and dying, 

 nine out of ten are snapped up by frog, lizard, or bird; 

 the few which die a natural death seeming to disintegrate 

 into mould within a very short space of time. There is, 

 however, one way in which, through the long, long thou- 

 sands of centuries, insects have been preserved. The spicy 

 resin which flowed from the ancient pines attracted hosts 

 of insects, which, tempted by their hope of food, met their 

 death caught and slowly but surely enclosed by the 

 viscid sap, each antenna and hair as perfect as when the 

 insect was alive. Thus, in this strangely fortunate way, 

 we may know and study the insects which, millions of 

 years ago, fed on the flowers or bored into the bark of trees. 

 We have found no way to improve on Nature in this re- 

 spect, for to-day when we desire to mount a specimen 

 permanently for microscopical work, we imbed it in Canada 

 balsam. 



If suddenly the earth should be bereft of all trees, there 

 would indeed be consternation and despair among many 

 classes of animals. Although in the sea there are thou- 

 sands of creatures, which, by their manner of life, are 

 prohibited from ever passing the boundary line between 

 land and water, yet many sea-worms, as for example the 

 teredo, or ship-worm, are especially fashioned for living 

 in and perhaps feeding on wood, in the shape of stray 

 floating trees and branches, the bottoms of ships, and 

 piles of wharves. Of course the two latter are supplied by 



