What May be Learned from a TreeSherman & Sons, 1859 - 192 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
amongst anastomosis animal annual appearance axilla axis or stem bark and wood beautiful become Beech bipinnate bracts bud-scales called calyx cambium carbonic acid commencement common condition cone conical Coniferæ continue Coultas creation Draba verna duct earth epidermis fact feet fibre cells floral flowers foliage forest formation gemmule gradually green grow Hence herbaceous plants inches individual labor lamina landscape laws layers leaf leaflets living lobes main axis matter medullary rays metamorphosed midrib mountain Nature Norway Spruce number of leaves organization Paleozoic parenchyma peculiar period petals petiole phytons pinnules pistils pith present primary axis produced ramifications reader regarded remain reproductive rings rocks rudimentary season secondary axes seed sepals shoots and branches soil species of cells spring stage stamens stem and branches summit surface terminal bud tion tissue tripinnate twigs unfold variety vegetative vegetative powers vital activity wave of growth whilst whole tree wood and bark year's shoot
Popular passages
Page 151 - tis her privilege Through all the years of this our life, to lead From, joy to joy: for she can so inform The mind that is within us, so impress With quietness and beauty, and so feed With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all The dreary intercourse of daily life, Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb Our cheerful faith that all which we behold Is full of blessings.
Page 34 - Thus, the Washington Elm at Cambridge — a tree of no extraordinary size — was some years ago estimated to produce a crop of seven millions of leaves, exposing a surface of 200,000 square feet, or about five acres, of foliage.
Page 55 - The sea is constantly beating on the land, grinding it down, and scattering its worn-off particles and fragments, in the state of mud and pebbles, over its bed. Geological facts afford abundant proof that the existing continents have all of them undergone this process, even more than once, and been entirely torn in fragments, or reduced to powder, and submerged and reconstructed.
Page 164 - ... in its substance, and of evaporating pores on its surface, enables the crude fluid sent from the roots to be elaborated and digested until it becomes the peculiar secretion of the species; the contraction of a branch and its leaves forms a flower ; the disintegration of the internal tissue of a petal forms an anther; the folding inwards of a leaf is sufficient to constitute a pistillum ; and, finally, the gorging of the pistillum with fluid which it cannot part with causes the production of a...
Page 49 - Trees that are never barked are said to die at the age of 50 or 60 years. The bark is taken off for the first time when the tree is about fifteen years old ; it soon grows again, and may be rebarked three times, the bark improving every time till the tree attains the age of thirty years. It is taken off in sheets or tables, much in the same way as oak or larch bark is taken from the standing trees in this country. After being detached it is flattened by presenting the convex side...
Page 62 - ... which is put forth into the atmosphere during the vegetative season. In order to verify this truth, it is only necessary to select branches, the leaves of whose side-shoots are annually put forth as leaf-clusters, and which therefore take a minimum of development, and consequently exercise the smallest possible amount of physiological influence on the branch, and where powerful growths are suddenly succeeded by growths greatly retarded. One such branch now lies before me, seven years old, whose...
Page 179 - ... less consequence — in fact it is far better to cut them down ; for they make the climate too moist and cold, and prevent the successful cultivation of the soil. The present agricultural condition of Finland, in Northern Russia, establishes this fact ; for the removal of its woods has dried up its swamps and forwarded cultivation, whilst it has rendered the climate milder and more habitable. So in laying the railroad across the Isthmus of Panama, the country was found to be unhealthy because...
Page 94 - He who hath bent him o'er the dead Ere the first day of death is fled, The first dark day of nothingness, The last of danger and distress, Before Decay's effacing fingers Have swept the lines where beauty lingers.
Page 1 - Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad.' ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head ; And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in, stones, and good in every thing.