THE TREES OF AMERICA. 19 



being published in parts, and must of necessity extend over a considerable space 

 of time, and therefore develop itself as we go on, this will serve as an apology 

 for any irregularity in its arrangement as a whole. We shall revert to subjects 

 again and again, as we may deem them of value and interest. We wish not only 

 to " make sacred the trees of America," but to preserve for future time the mem- 

 ory of our co-laborators in this field. We should like to inscribe on our Libro 

 d'Oro the name of the humblest individual who causes a tree to grow where 

 none grew before. Surely he is more worthy of being remembered than the 

 noblest butcher who ever strode the earth leaving desolation in his track. 

 - " Thirty years ago," says Mr. Tudor, " I began at Nahant, when the scene pre- 

 sented little but bare and bleak desolation. Now the trees are greeting me with 

 the delicate perfume of flower and leaf; — and the wordless music of the breeze, as 

 it sings through their branches, with the joyous carol of the birds, answers the 

 roar of the ' deep-voiced neighboring ocean.' The birds ! I had forgotten that 

 they would come with the trees, and it is with glad surprise that I have watched 

 them from year to year, as new varieties come and take up their abode with us. 

 The robin, the bobolink, many kinds of sparrows, and even the humming bird 

 now make their home here. The birds make free with my fruit, taking the 

 best ; but they are welcome to it, for they amply repay me with their music and 

 their unceasing war upon the insect tribes. 



" It seems to me that no object in nature is more beautiful than a tree ; — com- 

 bined with glancing, babbling streams, in the midst of ravines and precipices, 

 standing beneath frowning, jagged rocks, or looking from the heights above upon 

 the plains below, as if to invoke a blessing upon the dwellers in their shadow : 

 they fill the soul vrith something akin to worship. But here at Nahant, with 

 tame water and wild water, where the waves dash and the spray flies, where we 

 have the rocks, and the precipices, and the mysterious voices from the caverns 

 of ocean, they seem to me to combine to produce an efiect before which interior 

 scenery must give way." 



Mr. Tudor has planted more than ten thousand trees at Nahant, and by the 

 results of his experiments, has fully demonstrated that trees properly cared for 

 in the beginning may be made to grow up to the very bounds of the ocean. 



