Now let us introduce a native of Australia, called the stinging tree. No wasp, or hornet, ever had a sharper sting. Dreaded by all who know it, the stinging tree is yet a beautiful object. It is only twelve feet high and has dark, glossy, green leaves, and large bunches of scarlet berries. The tree grows always in a cone shape and reminds one of a Christmas-tree lighted with red candles. But at the tip of each projection of the green, saucer-shaped leaf grows a deadly thorn. The least touch of one of these thorns fills a man or beast with a terrible pain. Beasts act as if seized with hydrophobia; human beings stung by this tree are partly paralyzed, and suffer agony for days, or even weeks. The dry leaf, wind-blown, is able to effect as serious a sting as the leaf still on the cruel tree. Dogs and horses that have come in contact with one of these thorns must be killed at once, as in their pain they become dangerous. Let us turn from this cruel stinging tree to one more useful and pleasant, the soap tree of Chili. This is a large, handsome tree with dark green leaves, casting a delightful shade. When the rough, outer bark is stripped away, behold under it a smooth, white bark, which, ground to powder, affords a soap nearly as good as any that you can buy. Who need have dirty hands or soiled clothing when a soap tree grows close beside his door? “Odd bark that,” do you say? Come to this next tree and we will show you a yet more wonderful bark. Have you any jugs or bottles to cork? Do you want some cork soles? Here is the tree on which they grow. This is the great cork tree of Spain. It is found in many parts of South Europe and on the North African coast, but Spain is the land where cork collecting is a chief industry. When you take a cork in your hand, let it be as the enchanted stone, to carry you away to the warm hills of Spain, where you may see the laughing, black-eyed Spanish boys and girls running about to help the cork gatherers. Our cork tree is thirty feet high, with well-spread branches, and a trunk very stout in proportion to the size of the tree. This trunk is covered with a thick, tough, elastic bark, which is constantly increased from within, growing thicker and thicker. When the trees are between fifteen and twenty years old, the bark is stripped off for the first time. This first bark is coarse and is used only for tanning, and for rough work. After eight or ten years the bark is stripped off again, and this time it is finer, and good enough for net-floats, and other coarse work, as life-preservers and buoys.