NATURAL HISTORY RAMBLES. THE WOODLAND S. BY M. C. COOKE, M.A. LL.D. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION DEC IF 79 HODLEIAND SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE: THE WOODLANDS. CHAPTER I. FORESTS AND THEIR USES. FROM that remote period when Adam and his companion walked "amongst the trees of the garden," down to these latter days, men have exhibited their attachment to trees, woods, and forests. Some of the earliest rites of idolatry were performed under the shelter of trees. In all the worships of the world they have been an important adjunct. The sculptures of India, Assyria, and Egypt, represent trees as associated with religious rites; and the aisles of our own splendid cathedrals exhibit semblances of vistas of stately trunks hewn in stone, the branches of which meet in arches overhead. Religiously, poetically, historically, man is associated with forests, his first home, his first temple; and even now his natural instincts lead him, whenever the, cares and business of life permit of relaxation, to seek a ramble in the woods as a welcome relief. To know something of the multitudinous objects with which the woodlands teem is a reasonable desire that accompanies his wanderings, and such a silent com |