adaptation by which a limb, originally destined to grow free and bear foliage, has been converted into a living stick of timber, is a strange one, and affords a new illustration of the power of nature to fit itself to circumstances. The space between the rough flooring formed by the growing together of the offshoots, at their point of departure, and the girder-limbs, is large enough to admit of building a comfortable hermit's hut within it.

Several forests are still existing in Europe in a primitive condition, some of the principal ones of which are situated on the vast estates