100 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
winter’s sleep is wearing off, has been the gentle 
agent in this movement, and has commenced its 
ascending course. There has, then, as we have 
said, been awakening life long ere we have seen 
its effects. But these at length are manifest. 
There is gentle pressure from within at ten 
thousand points on bough and twig; there is 
swelling of the incipient buds; a bursting of their 
scaly sheaths; the sweet unfolding of gems of 
glossy green; the expanding of their incipient 
parts; and then a burst of verdancy, as Spring, 
in her full glory, flings her green mantle over the 
earth. 
Then follows the Summer, with rich fulfilment 
of the promise of spring. The tender gold of the 
budding leaves is changed to the deeper tinge 
of glossy green, whose spreading surface has 
reached its full expansion, when Trees lift their 
glorious heads against the midsummer sky, and 
are musical with the sound of the midsummer 
breeze. And then upon the mass of their ex- 
panded foliage there is alternation of sunshine 
and shadow, giving to the delighted eye every 
shade of verdancy, with rapid change from silver 
