64 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



Consider my outward form, and hear concerning the 

 inward mechanism by which that form progressed to per- 

 fection and is still sustained. First is the cuticle, or bark, 

 smooth in youth, furrowed as years pass on, and furnished 

 with pores through which both air and light may pass, in 

 order to perform their active ministry. To this succeeds 

 a green substance, called the cellular integument; next, 

 the inner bark ; and, lastly, the wood, diversified with a 

 variety of concentric circles, each the growth of a single 

 year, and designating, by consequence, my age. 



The internal or true wood is hard, and often darkly 

 coloured ; the outer differs in appearance, and through this 

 ascends innumerable vessels, which, becoming spiral in the 

 leaf-stalks, ramify between the pulpy substance of the 

 leaves. These vessels act as conduits for the moisture of 

 the earth, which, being absorbed by the roots, rises through 

 them into the leaves, and, after undergoing a chemical 

 change through the agency of air and light, is brought 

 back by another set of vessels down the leaf-stalks into 



