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other leaves. That, too, is a mountain tree, and so 
abundantly does its penciled form attract moisture 
from the clouds, that some islands of the ocean are 
wholly watered by the streams that pour from its 
pyramidal groves. Behold how green and rich it 
looks ! Its leaves do not fall till spring, when the 
new ones are already grown to take their places. 
Men love the evergreens because they adorn their 
winter landscapes, and murmur still of woods and 
zephyrs, when all else is bound in icy chains. 
“ But I cannot live through the winter months. 
When the earthy particles, brought from the ground 
in the sap, have accumulated in my petiole and im¬ 
peded the passage of water and air, activity ceases 
with the loss of that living flow, and I with my sisters 
fall gently to the ground, to be swept before the 
blasts of autumn, till at last we crumble to dust, 
or are crushed beneath the foot of man. I dread 
