298 
CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 
The simple facts, as stated by Mr. Meehan, have so great sig- 
nificance that no intelligent man who thinks of them can fail to 
appreciate the immense influence of trees on climates ; and every 
suburban home may be made to feel in some degree their ameliora- 
ting effect. 
In riding to a suburban home from business in a city, we 
have felt the effect of mere grass alone, without trees, in cooling 
the air in hot summer days. Narrow streets, with high houses, are 
much cooler at such times than broad streets and open unshaded 
ground ; and the first feeling in leaving a city office and riding 
across the bare suburbs that usually intervene between the busi- 
ness part of a city and its pleasant tree-embowered residences, 
is, that the city street is the most comfortable place. But when 
we reach a grass-covered field a trifle less dryness in the air is per- 
ceptible ; and when the shadows of trees are reached, there will be 
a difference of several degrees between the air under them and 
that in the open highway ; and not merely a difference of tem- 
perature as indicated by the thermometer, but also an increased 
moisture that gives the sensation of a greater difference than the 
thermometer measures. 
