THE FLORA OF WINTER 



141 



THEIR EMERALD RICHNESS AGAINST THE SNOWY WHITENESS OF WINTER 



armed hewers who built the fleet of 

 ^neas, of the emerald-crowned kings 

 from Ida's sides, and of the rude songs 

 of the Viking rowers as they swept over 

 the seas in their ocean steeds, framed 

 from the dark, tossing pines of Norway. 



Pleasant are the pine woods even in the 

 winter time. One has a warm, comfort- 

 able feeling standing among them on the 

 coldest of midwinter days, for their thick 

 branches have kept the snow from the 

 brown, tasseled ground, and the cold 

 winds cannot enter them. The wind sighs 

 pleasantly through the leaves, and the 

 piney odors are as satisfying as a waft of 

 frankincense and myrrh from Arabv the 

 Blest. 



Almost as beautiful is the hemlock. Its 

 soft, delicate foliage suggests dreams of 

 summer amid deep snows. These trees 

 are all cone-bearing, or as the Germans 

 call them, "needle trees." It was one of 

 this family, you will remember, that in 

 the folk-lore storv wanted to change its 

 needles into "truly" leaves, like those of 



the maple and the oak. G-lad enough, 

 however, was the dissatisfied tree, if we 

 recollect aright, to receive its needles back 

 again, and very much should we miss them 

 if all the pines and firs and spruces should 

 choose to give up their needles and cones 

 and put on the costume of the other trees. 

 The larch is the only member of the 

 evergreen family that mimics the other 

 families of trees and sheds its leaves in 

 winter. 



Useful trees are all this family; they 

 are not merely ornamental, but commend 

 themselves to the most utilitarian mind. 

 The wood of the red cedar is used in the 

 manufacture of lead pencils. The tall 

 pines on our mountain sides again tower 

 aloft in foreign harbors and on distant 

 seas. From the white spruce the Indian 

 cuts his swift-darting canoe. Our great 

 tanneries are supplied by the bark of larch 

 and hemlock. Healing balsams are fur- 

 nished by the firs. Pitch, resin, balsams 

 — these are the spices that flavor our 

 winter flora. 



