344 Trees ; their General Character and Advantages. 



The consequence of depriving a country of its wood, is 

 the drying of the soil in about the same proportion ; and 

 were a country to be completely deprived of its timber, in 

 the interior of a large continent, it would be converted into a 

 dry desert. Trees not only check evaporation from the soil, 

 but they attract the moisture of the atmosphere and concen- 

 trate it in their own neighborhood. They are likewise, 

 when planted at a proper distance from our dwellings, a pro- 

 tection against lightning. Trees are good conductors, and 

 where they are very numerous they prevent the accumula- 

 tion of electricity in the atmosphere, by silently conducting 

 down the fluid from the impending clouds. It is also well 

 known that the foliage of trees produces a constant purifying 

 influence upon the vital element that surrounds us, and aids 

 other natural agents in reproducing what living creatures 

 have consumed. But, setting all these considerations aside, 

 the beauty of trees would alone be a sufficient inducement to 

 cultivate them ; and, more than all, they serve to attract the 

 singing birds around our dwellings, through whose sweet 

 voices nature is always communicating to us some agreeable 

 sentiment or cheerful emotion. 



Among the advantages of trees it would be idle to omit to 

 mention their fragrance. No man of imagination would de- 

 spise a perfume. It is a part of the universal language of 

 nature, and aids us in interpreting many of her laws. If we 

 conversed by odors, instead of sounds, the sense of smelling 

 would be ranked with the intellectual senses. And how in- 

 timately associated is the terebinthine odor of pines with the 

 pleasant languor of summer noon-day, with the gathering of 

 wild fruits in the pastures, with the pensive notes of the soli- 

 tary thrushes, and with the few beautiful and singular flowers 

 that dwell like nuns in their cloistered solitudes. 



But the most evident cause of the sensation of beauty 

 with which we contemplate a grove of trees, is the idea of 

 the protection they aff"ord us during the languid heat of sum- 

 mer. Connected with this are the sounds of winds through 

 their foliage, the hum of insects among their blossoms, and 

 the warbling of birds among their branches. All these come 



