34 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
condition, and noticing for how long a period 
this dormant condition may be continued—over 
what a great extent of time—as man is accustomed 
to measure time—the concentrated energy and 
power of growth may be suspended through the 
absence of that sympathetic touch which Nature, 
in her gentle moods, impresses upon the plant 
world. 
Spring, in our native woodlands, is the season 
of early growth; and there is something very 
beautiful in the gentle awakening of flowers, 
shrubs, and Trees, after their winter sleep. We 
have not here, as in the tropical world, the charm 
of perpetual spring andsummer. The genial rain 
and warmth of the one, and the resplendent 
glory of the other, are followed by the falling of 
the leaf, and by the icy chill of winter, when slum- 
ber falls on all, save a few of our native plants. 
The change brings cheerlessness to our woods and 
fields; but it prepares us for the joyousness of 
the succeeding spring, to which it helps to im- 
part a pleasure that we should never know but 
for the intervention of the dormant season. 
Throughout this dormant season the seed, 
