96 SPRING. 



consequently, there is little or no lever power, and 

 thence it is deflected upwards, so that it cuts the cur- 

 rents farther up. Then the firm setting of the greater 

 arms, fortified by an additional mass of timber, and 

 the tapering away branch after branch, so that while 

 the root is unmoved, and the base unshaken by the 

 winds, the twigs that immediately carry the foliage, 

 tremble to the lightest breeze, and give to the leaves a 

 sort of locomotion, by which they are, in all probability, 

 better fitted for performing their important functions in 

 the atmosphere. 



Thus a tree, even when stripped of its leaves, and to 

 all appearance lifeless, is far from being uninteresting 

 even as a sight ; but when we come to reflect on the great 

 quantity and variety of life of which it is the depository, 

 its importance increases, and we find it a complete ma- 

 gazine of natural history, of which we may watch all 

 the progress and proceedings. Each of the little buds 

 that appear in or under the places from which the 

 hardening of the intermediate pellicle of wax has re- 

 moved the leaves, or that bore with a point, or accu- 

 mulate in a woody ganglion upon the trunk, is, though 

 yet its size does not equal that of a pin's head, or even 

 of a pin's point, each of them is a perfect tree, and 

 would, if placed in a situation properly fitted for it, pro- 

 duce the same tree as its parent, and indeed is the only 

 means by which we can make sure that one tree shall 

 be of exactly the same variety as another. The seat 

 of vitality is a point with which naturalists have long 

 puzzled themselves, and well they may, for a gangrene 

 in the toe, or a ragged wound in the finger, will often 

 occasion certain death, while in other cases health will 



