Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1873-06-25
For the Wa;ehman.
Our Lecture on TreeS---NO. ,.
BY J. MILTON srRARNs.

BY j. MILTON srEARNs.
Having noted the history and poetry of
trees, We will refer briefly, in conclusion, TO
the science of their growth and species.
1t is said, that " God created every plant
Of the field before it grew, whose seed was
in Itself" including trees of the forest.
This origin of vegetable life, its species
and its generation, is stated as an histori-
cal fact Science is compelled to take this
fact, as an ultimate truth, whose reason
cannot be more cleary shown. eucidated or
analyzea than in this simple record of
Revelation With all the boast Of science,
savans can give no other reason than the
fact itself why matter forms itself into
trees rather than into other vegetable
growths, and why species of trees propa-
gates its kind rather than some different
species You say this is law of nature
so II is But does nature afford any clue
to explain why it has become law Of na-
ture if it be an original and not result
ing phenomenon We may find wisdom
in the divine authority aud order, as shown
in all the fields of nature but we can find
nothing in nature herself no special forces,
that could be esteemed adequate to origin
ate and develop what we esteem natures
laws In the same soil grows, side by side,
birch tree, a maple and hemlock, and
perhaps dozen other species of trees If
you cut into the side of the birch, in the
spring Of the year, you obtain a sap slightly
acid, aud perhaps tinctured with the taste
of birch bark but cut into n maple tree,
and the sap which flows out is sweet, and
holds in solution considerable proportion of
saccharne element, easily reduced, by evapo-
ration, to marketable sugar. But hemock,
spruce, pines and cedars produce, in solu-
tion with their sap, resinous gums. The
sap of some trees is tasteless, and of others,
acid and bitter How all these trees grow
in the same soil, aud are surrounded by the
same atmosphere, and subject to the same
temperature and climate, is mystery; but
each species grows aud devolopes its own
species aud character according to the
laws of its vegetable generation, and no
man can give reason for such fact palmer
than the fact itself
When we undertake to apply the law of
simply mechanical forces to account for
vegetable phenomena, we find them entirely
inadequate to effect the results we witness
in nature. The laws Of chemistry, though
finding a scope for their office far above
that Of mere mechanical forces, cannot
change a dead tree to life; cannot develop
or explain the phenomena Of trees, and their
species aud vegetable growths, By any ele-
ments in the composition Of soils. Per-
haps, when the tree has life and existence,
its growth may be accelerated by elements
of soil nearest 10 character to that Of the
matter composing the trees. Yet the soil
without the seed and the germ, will not
produce a tree and even with the germ
and seed, something beyond mere chemical
affinity is required to develop its vegetable
life. Whether the law Of affinity, which
selects and appropriates the materials in
nature, which sustain vegetable and ami
NAL life, has any uniformity in its action.
is still uncertain We style it the cifdl af.
faity which in man is seen to operate
through taste and appetite, but selecting
far different food than that sought by other
species Of the animal creation. This uhai
affinity is only uniform in taking up aud
appropristing such substances as will add
to the growth and development Of the par
ticular species of animal or vegetable life
1t is very pretty story to tell us how "the
leaves Of trees absorb oxygen from the at
mosphere to promote the growth of the
tree y but why they absorb oxygen rather
than hydrogen, or nitrogen can only be re-
ferrcd 10 their unexplainable vital affinity.
But the growth Of trees is almost as
much mystery as the growth Of animals
That the sap ascends, in the spring of the
year, through the interstices or pores Of the
wood, is fact We can ascertain by critical
observation but an adequate cause for this
circulation Of the blood Of the tree is not
to bc found in any of the mere mechanical
forces, or mere chemical afinites. Some
writers will tell US the sap is drawn up by
absorption through capillary attraction, cr
that nature in spring cnlargos their inierstiees
or pores of the wood, and these pores, being
hermetically sealed against the obtrusions