262 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



Yet still somewhat of sylvan beauty is associated with 

 the unassuming maple. In autumn our foliage presents 

 a peculiarly rich and mellow tint; in spring our leaves 

 are the resort of many defenceless insects, some of which 

 erect upon them their numerous red-coloured and tent-like 

 domiciles, and in summer they present a white cottony 

 appearance. True it is that our young shoots are singu- 

 larly rugged ; and yet, if cut through horizontally, a thin 

 slice will present a beautiful and curious object for the 

 microscope, exhibiting the different channels and variously 

 constructed tubes, through which sap flows and air cir- 

 culates for the supply of our various requirements. And 

 thus has a naturalist, when speaking of our family, well 

 observed : "It is good and delightful to contemplate 

 the wondrous mechanism which has been appointed by its 

 Creator for the well-being and the beautifying of this 

 humble hedge-row tree, this dwarf among its statelier 

 brethren, whom the artist never lingers to pourtray, nor 

 yet the poet to describe." But over the tomb of one who 



