86 TREES. 



onous." These show no distinction of bark, and wood, 

 and pith ; they are destitute of branches (except in a 

 few very curious and exceptional instances) ; and 

 their leaves, which are inconceivably enormous to any 

 one who has never seen - leaves larger than those of 

 English trees, are produced only upon the summit of 

 the stem. They are chiefly represented in the illustri- 

 ous tropical productions known as palm-trees, — those 

 soul-moving emblems of the south and east, and in 

 England are only seen in large and costly conserva- 

 tories, where room can be afiforded them to lift their 

 great green pride on high. Even then we only see 

 them as juveniles, no possible structure of glass being 

 competent to shelter them when full grown, except in 

 the case of some of the dwarfer kinds. It is among 

 the exogenous trees, accordingly, that in England we 

 find our delight. It is these which form the sweet and 

 solitary arcades of the forest ; that are the homes or 

 the resting-places of the birds ; that shelter us from 

 the storni. and temper the heat of the sun ; whose 

 trunks are embossed with tender creepers of green 

 moss, or hidden by the activity of the innumerable 

 and ubiquitous ivy ; — it is these that are so lovely in 

 their youth, so venerable and patriarchal in their old 

 age ; these that stand still in quiet dignity while we 

 talk of fourscore as a wonderful lifetime, and for 

 their own part watch the rise and fall even of nations. 

 For the nature of an exogenous tree being to expand 



