THE PERSONALITY OF TREES 



HOW many of us think of trees almost as we 

 do of the rocks and stones about us, as all 

 but inanimate objects, standing in the same rela- 

 tion to our earth as does the furry covering of an 

 animal to its owner. The simile might be carried 

 out more in detail, the forests protecting the con- 

 tinents from drought and flood, even as the coat 

 of fur protects its owner from extremes of heat 

 and cold. 



When we come to consider the tree as a living 

 individual, a form of life contemporaneous with 

 our own, and to realise that it has its birth and 

 death, its struggles for life and its periods of 

 peace and abundance, we will soon feel for it a 

 keener sympathy and interest and withal a ven- 

 eration greater than it has ever aroused in us 

 before. 



Of all living things on earth, a tree binds us 

 most closely to the past. Some of the giant tor- 

 toises of the Galapagos Islands are thought to be 

 four hundred years old and are probably the 

 oldest animals on the earth. There is, however, 

 nothing to compare with the majesty and 

 grandeur of the Sequoias the giant redwoods of 

 California the largest of which, still living, 

 reach upward more than one hundred yards above 



