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 ters the seeds of plants and trees in every direction. Such seeds as those of the maple which have wings can fly a long way. In this manner the forest spreads and little new trees spring up miles from the parent tree. The birds also have been carrying seeds all through the summer and autumn, so that the earth has been well stocked with new seed in readiness for the coming of spring.

In many of the hollows the dead leaves are piled high, covering with warm leaf blankets the arbutus, the hepatica, the anemone, and many other wild flowers. Some trees there are which do not shed their garments at all, or they do it so gradually that we do not notice it.

These are the non-deciduous trees, such as the hemlock, the pine, the spruce, and all the other evergreens.

Every second year they shed their cones which contain the seeds, and thus keep up the forest.

At last when everything is in readiness, when the dead leaves have covered the wild flowers, and the trees and bushes are ready, there comes