FROM SIMPLE LEAVES. 115 



of successive generations of shoots, wliicli remain connected 

 with each other and which have developed on the first year's 

 shoot. Where is now that once slender and flexible shoot 

 which formed the growth of the first year and the basis or 

 foundation of all the succeeding growths ? It has been meta- 

 morphosed, through the labors of its numerous progeny, into 

 a stem massive and unyielding, and the buds which adhered 

 to its surface, after the fall of its leaves, have been replaced 

 by wide-spread and powerful branches ! It is thus that the 

 matter of the earth and atmosphere is attracted about a seed 

 or germinating point, and successively moulded into cells, 

 leaves, shoots, branchlets, and branches, until at length a form 

 majestic and beautiful — a noble Tree is constructed. How far 

 surpassing all the works of man, this wondrous living archi- 

 tecture of Nature ! Ah ! man, thou canst go to Nature for 

 instruction, copy her faithfully with thy pencil — but, mould 

 thy material imitations as thou wilt, thou canst not give them 

 life ! These are secrets which Nature has hidden from thee ! 



There is a wonderful unity and harmony pervading all 

 the parts of these works of Nature, which result from the 

 influences of the same general laws to which the cell, the 

 leaf, the branch, and in fact the entire tree, are alike subject. 

 Just as the whole tree consists of a union of branches of 

 various growths, as the branches themselves are formed 

 by a union of shoots which show an equal amount of varia- 

 bility in the extent of their development, so the leaves them- 

 selves, which construct the shoots, when simple, with an entire 

 edge, fully formed and free from each, vary in figure and 

 size on the same shoot. Even those leaves which manifest 

 a disposition to self-multiplication, and which must be re- 

 garded as transitional between the compound and simple, in 

 the different sizes of their lobes, teeth, crenatures, serratures, 

 plainly show that the forming leaflets are endowed even from 

 the beginning with a tendency to that variety of vegetative 

 energy and impulse which is so well-marked a feature in the 

 other organs. This is the cause of that pleasing and infinite 

 variety of form assumed by the foliage of trees — that green 

 and graceful drapery with which they are annually adorned. 



