But all along
the redwood belt there are sunny openings on hill-slopes looking to the
south, where the giant trees stand back, and give the ground to the
small sunflowers and the bees. Around the lofty redwood walls of these
little bee-acres there is usually a fringe of Chestnut Oak, Laurel, and
Madrono, the last of which is a surpassingly beautiful tree, and a great
favorite with the bees. The trunks of the largest specimens are seven or
eight feet thick, and about fifty feet high; the bark red and chocolate
colored, the leaves plain, large, and glossy, like those of _Magnolia
grandiflora_, while the flowers are yellowish-white, and urn-shaped, in
well-proportioned panicles, from five to ten inches long. When in full
bloom, a single tree seems to be visited at times by a whole hive of
bees at once, and the deep hum of such a multitude makes the listener
guess that more than the ordinary work of honey-winning must be going
on.
How perfectly enchanting and care-obliterating are these withdrawn
gardens of the woods--long vistas opening to the sea--sunshine sifting
and pouring upon the flowery ground in a tremulous, shifting mosaic, as
the light-ways in the leafy wall open and close with the swaying
breeze--shining leaves and flowers, birds and bees, mingling together in
springtime harmony, and soothing fragrance exhaling from a thousand
thousand fountains! In these balmy, dissolving days, when the deep
heart-beats of Nature are felt thrilling rocks and trees and everything
alike, common business and friends are happily forgotten, and even the
natural honey-work of bees, and the care of birds for their young, and
mothers for their children, seem slightly out of place.
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