THE following chapters appeared originally in a Magazine which has for its chief aim the diffusion of moral and sacred truth, and is always glad to have this ddne through the medium of illustrations drawn from a u,-that second Book of God, which is everywhere a commentary upon the first and greatest. They make not the slightest pretension to a scientific character,. seeking, like their forerunners on the Little Things of Nature, simply to set forth, in a plain and easy manner, some few of the beautiful and refreshing truths connected with the foresters of Old England. If received in the kindly spirit which it is hoped they may aid in diffusing and encouraging, they may probably be followed by a second series. ADVERTISEMENT TO SECOND EDITION. THIS Edition has been carefully corrected, and much new matter has been introduced, having reference to the economic uses of trees and their products. The additions of wood-cut portraits of the trees described, will assist dso, it is hoped, in giving the book new value. CONTENTS. General Qualities and Recommendations of Trees Structure of Trees . The Oak The Pine . The Beech . The Elm The Lime . , The Poplar and the Willow . The Yew . The Maple and the Sycamore . The Birch and the Alder . The Ash-tree . The Mountain-ash The Chestnut . Summary of smaller Trees . PAGE 1 . 6 . 11 . 35 , . 55 . 70 . 85 . 103 . 121 . 130 . 1M . 159 . 171 . 172 . 175 TREES co nstitute an order of nobility for nature has its aristocracy as well as mankind. If there be ancient and noble families in a nation or a community, still older, and inheriting yet more dignity, are the families of living things by which man is encircled. He can claim no honour on the score of descent or genealogy that is not already merited by some patrician of the world of plants and this not so much because trees are the same to-day that they were in the beginning, as by reason of their absolute excellence, their . se rene and invulnerable perfection. Trees are sanitary agents in the economy of the world we live in. By the process of assimilation, which means the abstraction of carbon from the atmosphere, in order that, in due time, and through certain vital processes, it may be converted into wood and other vegetable substances,-by the process of assimilation, we say, trees, through the medium of their leaves, preserve the air in a condition fit for breathing. Herbaceous vegetation contributes to this great end but the result is mainly referable R 2 VALUE OF TREES. to arborescent plants, their extent of leaf-surface being so prodigious, when compared with that of the former kind. We little think when we inhale4 the fresh air, and quaff it upon the hills, like SO much invisible wine, that its purity and . healthfulness come of the glorious trees. But so it is. Nor have we merely the trees of our own country to think of and be thankful for. The air we breathe in England to-day has been purified perhaps a thousand miles away. If the wind blow from the north, we may be thankful to the Scandinavian birches if from the west, it is quite possible that khe magnolias of North h e r i c a may have helped to strain it if from the south, were it gifted with language, we might hear news from the orange groves...