The Romance of Plant Life

eak-Uses of birch-Norwegian barques-Destruction of wood in America-Paper from wood pulp-Forest fires-Arid lands once fertile-Britain

rhaps the first forests were those of the great coal period, of which the rem

misty atmosphere, upon these weird, grotesque vegetables, unlike anything which now exists upon the earth. Their nearest a

curacy of the descriptions of Heer and others, yet, as they have not given anything better in the way of description, we shall endeavou

by carefully looking at a pan of Selaginella such as one finds in almost every botanical garden, and imagining this to be eighty feet high. Through the bottomless oozy slime which formed the ground, horizontal runners and roots penetrated in every direction. Great fern-like plants might be observed here and there. Sluggish rivers meandered slowly through these fores

by salamander-like animals with weak limbs and a long tail. Some of these latter were seven to eigh

Araucaria imbricata) is often planted in the British Isles, and it has, if you look closely at it, a most peculiar appearance. It is like t

important article of diet to the Indians on the slopes of the Chilian Andes, where monkey-puzzle forests used to exist. This of course is a very out-of-the-way region; other species of Araucaria are found scatter

d crocodiles, Araucarias were the regular, ordinary trees. They grew all over Europe,

those extraordinary bird or bat-like lizards, used to feed upon the seeds of the monkey-puzzle, and carried them in their toothed jaws to New Caledonia, Australia, and Norfolk Island. Other impro

certain Chinese temples, where they had been preserved as curiosities for centuries, but it is almost extinct as a wild plant. The Bigtree group (Sequoia p. 47) was a companion of the Ginkgo

ave tried to show in the last chapter, has been always of the greatest importance to mankind

d by the wind, is preferred for the sounding-board of pianos and for the flat part of v

ed (sap and heartwood of Barberry), to dark and light brown mottled (Olive), black (Persimmon), and dark brown (Walnut). Some woods have a distinct smell o

something like 16,000 lb. to force a square-inch punch to a depth of one-twentieth of an inch in Lignum vit?. Even Hickory and Oak (if of good quality) require a pressure of 3200 lb. t

y. Perhaps the Black Ironwood, of which a cubic foot weighs 85 lb., is the heaviest o

. Thus the Cedar which "Hiram rafted down" to make the temple of Solomon (probably Cedar of Lebanon) seems to have been extra

Museum which is 600-700 years old. The Cypresswood gates of Constantinople were eleven centuries old when they were destroyed by the Turks in 1453. The fleet of Alexander the Great, and the bridge over the Euphrates

woodcuts, and Walnut, which used to be highly prized for gu

(Eucalyptus marginata) cover 14,000 square miles of Australia, but they are being rapidly cut down and sawn up into small blo

Cashmere. Nowadays great "slides" are made, winding down into the valleys from the recesses of the hills. When winter approaches, water is sprinkled on the logs which make the slide; this freez

pbuilding, and grows in many places of India, Malaysia, Java, and Sumatra. It floats down the rivers of Burmah, coming from the most r

sent to England and Russia (native Indian woods are also used). It is also used in the distillation of Scotch

urid green. The tall, slowmoving, white-bearded skipper and his wife, children, and crew, not to speak of a dog and cats, have their home on this veteran "windjammer." She carries them from some unpronounceable, never-heard-of port in Norway, all over the world. You may see her discharging a

be much cheaper to use her cargo in Capetown than to utiliz

e forests of Norway, of Sweden, and eve

ng the paper required for one day's issue of a certain New York journal. What a responsibility and a so

4,131,520 acres of Californian Redwood was used in making th

forest are necessary to keep up the supply of s

and the thousand other important requisites of civilized man,

Lawrence, has indeed gone or is disappearing into pulpwood and timber, but there is still the great Northern forest from the Straits of Belleisle to Alaska (

oduced by disintegrating wood: it is cheap, and can be produced in huge quantities; nevertheless it is disquieting to reflect that probably nineteen-twentieths of the

re readers of fifty years hence who are now in their cradle

, one discovers broken granite or syenite needles, which had been intended by the ancient Egyptians

he wood split the rock, though this is hard granite or syenite. Very often the process fa

e such fertile soil if it had not been for the many years during which leaf-mould fell on it, and the roots broke up and penetrated the subsoil below.

terrible wa

eads with enormous rapidity; great clouds of smoke roll over the surrounding country, and every village sounds the alarm. Everybody rushes to help and try to stop the conflagration, o

twigs and scorching bark make such a volume of f

ry bird and insect is in t

ealand has been described b

f the woods; then insidiously he stretched forth his glittering arms, first one, then another, and locking the shuddering trees in an

re!

and twig of that fairy forest was wrought and hammered in virgin gold, every branch and trunk was a carved miracle of burnished copper. And from the golden leaves to the golden floor, floatingly or swiftly, there fell an unceasing rain of crimson flame petals, gorgeous flame fruits. Depth after dep

re!

ateness of the human weakling. On one side the titanic forces of nature, inexorable, eternal

re!

a part of the main wall were already in flames. A few minutes-five at the most-would complete the demolition of the house. To right and left the great trees one after

est is partly absorbed by the leaves, and but a very small part of it is carried off by burns and streams: most sinks down int

burns, and then the ground becomes afterwards very dry and burnt up. There are very many countries now barren and de

all the cities of the coast of Asia Minor, as they were even a thousand years ago, and compare t

e or a few miserable peasants carefully husband the water of a few miserable streams. The same

and especially in Britain, new forests are being planted. Perhaps in time we may grow in Britain so mu

every thousand acres of such land nowadays supports perhaps one shepherd and half a gamekeeper. But when it is pla

eak-chested factory hands and hooligans. Such sites of old farms can often be recognized by a patch of nettles, and especially by eight or nine ash trees. These were always planted near the houses to give a ready supply of wood for spears. Th

ld be planted in every village churchyard. Probably this was to ensure a good supply of bows for t

rest

n New Zealand, and the Maoris

an and of the forests in Great Britain from the

seabirds' eggs, nuts, and fruits, almost the whole cou

eer, horses, cattle, and birds, he used much woo

le, goats, and ponies, there would be many clearings and

lisle and Edinburgh. Yet first the King, then the Barons, had their parks and woodlands for preserving game. Moreover, the

workers, rich men began to make plantations in the lowlands, and t

great forests are necessary on all waste-land and barren places,