Convention— liEMARKABLE trees and plants. 183 
made more pleasant and attractive than they are, and that this in¬ 
expensive beautifying has an elevating and beneficial effect upon 
individuals and communities. He did not believe, however, in 
adopting any fixed rules for pleasure and enjoyment—our tastes 
and desires were different, and each was seeking happiness and 
contentment, and what would contribute this to one would not to 
another. We should try to cultivate the higher order of enjoy¬ 
ment, lifting up and ennobling mankind, and really making the 
world better for our having lived in it. 
Mr. Smith thought we should not live wholly for ourselves; this 
was a low order of happiness. Riches, if wisely used, bring com¬ 
forts and happiness; but the miser’s happiness is but little above 
animal desire. 
Mr. Wood said he here desired to express his admiration of the 
sentiments advanced in the paper just read; they were elevating 
and ennobling, and if all would cultivate and practice them, they 
would come nearer fulfilling the high destiny of man. 
REMARKABLE TREES AND PLANTS. 
MRS. II. M. LEWIS, MADISOX. 
“ It is pleasant to note all plants, from the rush to the spreadinpj cedar, 
From the giant king of palms to the lichen that staineth its stem.” 
Throughout the whole world, nature has bestowed her gifts most 
bountifully for the good of man, but to the dwellers of the tropical 
world she has seemed most kind, for she has given out of her great 
storehouse a vegetation that supplies mankind with home, clothing, 
food, shade, and shelter; all these gifts she centers in her wonder¬ 
ful palms. The palms do not send out branches like the trees of 
our northern forests, but have a straight trunk, terminating in a 
crown of gigantic feathery leaves of great beauty. Nearly all kinds 
of palms furnish nourishing food or drink for men. The fresh sap 
from the tree furnishes a delicious beverage, and, by fermentation, 
an agreeable wine or brandy; a fine sugar is also produced from the 
.sap. The soft and spongy substance, in the inner part of the 
