226 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



rocks and sands* has with the same wisdom 

 allotted the fir and the pine their dominion 

 on those bleak and elevated mountains, which 

 attract the snows to their summits, in order 

 that the valleys may be refreshed by their 

 descending streams. 



Every part of these trees displays infinite 

 wisdom in their formation, which is so pecu- 

 liarly adapted to their native mountains. The 

 resinous juices, with which their trunks and 

 branches abound, defy the rigour of the frost 

 to congeal the sap, whilst the filiform nature 

 of the leaves of these evergreen trees are not 

 less happily adapted for resistance to the im- 

 petuosity of the winds, that beat with such 

 violence on elevated situations. As these 

 trees were designed by nature for perpetual 

 winter, their foliage possesses the farther 

 advantage of reverberating the heat, like the 

 hair of animals. 



The Swedish naturalists have observed 

 that the fattest pines are to be found on the 

 dryest and most sandy regions of Norway ; 

 and Mathiola, in his useful commentary on 

 Dioscorides, informs us that there is no sub- 

 stance more proper than the charcoal of those 

 trees for prompt melting the iron minerals, 

 in the vicinity of which they peculiarly thrive. 

 The closeness of their foliage shelters the 



