152 TREES IN UNDRESS. 



drawn diagrams of four hundred circling years. 

 Think of it ! They were saplings when Columbus 

 discovered the continent on which . they grew. 

 Indeed, it is the longevity of many trees that 

 gives them character and interest above that of 

 monoliths erected by man. They are Nature's 

 living, growing pillars, that have stood for centu- 

 ries, and year after year have thrown out their 

 green, scarlet and golden banners, as it were, to 

 celebrate some important event in our country's 

 history. With what emotion we stand to look on 

 some dignified and patriarchal maple, oak or elm, 

 that was in its prime when the Pilgrim Fathers 

 came, and in its nobleness, perhaps, sheltered the 

 Concord farmers in '75 ! 



Along the intervals, banks of rivers, low tracts 

 of rich, alluvial soil, and sometimes on higher 

 forest grounds, are often seen squadrons and 

 companies of stately ashes, with colors surren- 

 dered, but holding aloft thousands of spears, 

 which in old veteran troops appear shattered and 

 broken, as if they had battled bravely with many 

 a wind battery stationed on the surrounding hills. 

 The spray of these trees is not feathery and 

 drooping, but coarse and upright, and the numer- 

 ous yellowish-gray branches usually grow upward 

 from the trunks at very sharp angles. The bark 

 of the older stems has a potent medicinal appear- 

 ance, and is so peculiarly carved, in such curious 



