256 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



they had seated themselves ! The hole sufficed to furnish 

 sufficient juice to fill a considerable vessel, which the 

 labourer, who first told his master of the young sycamore,, 

 was privileged to carry to the farmhouse, from which, in 

 due time, a household wine was made by the farmer's wife, 

 and offered to her guests when they again met at Christmas, 

 beside the yule log. 



The dame knew nought concerning the process for ob- 

 taining sugar, or else she might have sweetened her 

 children's puddings from the watery liquor yielded by the 

 sycamore, or greater maple : an art well known to the 

 aboriginal tribes of North America. 



There is much in my natural history to excite attention, 

 both as regards the insect tribes that resort to my bark 

 and leaves, and the wonderful construction of my seeds. 

 The Scarabaus Melontha is one of my frequent visitors ; 

 and if my pollen, which frequently covers, as with light 

 yellow powder, the hairy coat of the industrious bee, and 

 which appears globular in the microscope, is slightly 



