122 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Jtjne 1, 186S. 



Larch hangs out its green tassels, and no tree is 

 more beautiful in early Spring, for at a distance its 

 form is so light and feathery and its colour so pure 

 and delicate ; but it is almost more beautiful when 

 examined closely, for nestling amongst the green 

 tassels are seen the most exquisite little pink flowers, 

 like very double camellias. These are the female 

 blossoms, which afterwards become green, and 

 harden into the cones. The male flowers are round 

 close bunches of stamens, also very pretty. The 

 cones take two seasons to come to maturity. The 

 flowers of this Spring will ripen in 1869, and as they 

 will remain on the tree for many months after they 

 have opened and shed their seed, there may gene- 

 rally be found, as in many other firs, three generations 

 of fruit at one time upon the tree. 



Amongst the earliest to come into leaf are the 

 Sycamores, and they always make a great show very 

 quickly. No sooner do the buds burst, than they 

 appear to be in full leaf. One reason for this is 

 that the buds are large, and the leaves plaited and 

 crumpled up within them in a very intricate manner, 

 so that when liberated from their prisons they flatten 

 out at once to a considerable size. Not so with many 

 others in which the leaves are not plaited, but are 

 flat, or merely folded like a sheet of paper; such 

 when they burst from the buds are small, and 

 must grow a good deal before they make much 

 show. 



The Horse-chestnuts, the Elms, the Willows, and 

 all the other trees follow in their due order. The 

 Willows are deceitful, and often appear at a distance 

 so green that we think they are certainly coming 

 into leaf before any of the others ; but when we 

 come to examine them, the green colour is found to 

 be in the bark of the smaller twigs, or in the 

 catkins, which in some kinds appear before the 

 leaves. The Oak and the Ash bring up the rear, 

 the Oak being generally in leaf first ; but now and 

 then the Ash is the earliest, and when this happens 

 it is supposed by the wise old folk in country 

 places to indicate a very wet summer. 



There is great diversity in the colours of the 

 young leaves of different trees. The foliage of the 

 Beeches is almost emerald green; the Sycamores 

 and Horse-chestnuts arc of a darker and richer 

 hue ; the Willows wear a bluish tint ; and the Oaks 

 are of a yellow green, often with a brown or a red 

 tinge. All these, mingling with one another, and 

 with the dark sombre foliage of the evergreen firs, 

 give the woods a charm and a variety that is one of 

 the most beautiful features of Spring. 



A beautiful vernal phenomenon is seen in the 

 way in which different leaves are folded up in the 

 buds. This, which is called from the season, the 

 vernation of leaves, may be well observed by cutting 

 across the buds with a sharp knife. The vernation 

 will be found to be very different in different plants. 

 In some the edges of the leaves will be rolled in- 



wards, in others outwards;' some will be folded 

 alternately within each other ; some will be rolled 

 completely round ; and others will be plaited like a 

 closed fan. In ferns, the vernation is very beautiful, 

 the whole frond, and every branch of the frond, 

 even to its minutest segment, being rolled inwards. 

 It is called " circinate," and it is a method of ver- 

 nation which, with a very few remarkable exceptions, 

 is confined to the tribe of ferns, and in them is so 

 fully carried out that even the spore cases at the 

 back of the leaves have a circinate form. 



The way in which the delicate young leaves are 

 protected in the bud cannot fail to strike us as 

 being very beautiful and effectual. Generally, a 

 number of dry tough scales grow either around 

 them or amongst them, the edges of which overlap 

 each other, like slates on a house, forming a com- 

 plete case around the embryo leaves. The surface 

 of these scales is generally highly polished, so that 

 the rain runs off them without penetrating ; and 

 often they are coated with a resinous varnish, which 

 makes them still more impervious. The scales are 

 in many cases the stipules of the euclosed leaves. 

 Watch the expansion of a bud of the Lime-tree, 

 and you will see this very plainly. The progress of 

 the bud is very beautiful as each pair of stipules 

 unfolds, and the young leaf .to which they are at- 

 tached is liberated. The scales grow with the 

 leaves for a few days, and then fall off, being of no 

 further use. Watch the unfolding of a Horse- 

 chestnut bud, and you will see that as the young 

 branch grows, the leaves have no stipules, but the 

 varnished 'scales remain at the base of the branch, 

 and are not carried up with it. In this case they 

 are considered to be different organs, and are called 

 perules. 



Nowexamine'a bud of a Beech-tree as it expands, 

 and you will see how each leaf is embedded in a 

 soft cushion of silky hairs. Not many days elapse 

 ere the hairs fall off the young leaves, showing that 

 they serve some purpose within the bud that is not 

 required by the mature leaves. The hairs in Beech 

 and other buds are, doubtless, intended for the pro- 

 tection of the young leaves, either by supplying 

 warmth, or to attract moisture, or electricity, or 

 perchance to prevent the closely-packed young 

 leaves from injuring each other ; but in whatever 

 way they act, we may be quite sure they act bene- 

 ficially, else they would not be there. 



In some of the earliest of the Spring flowers we 

 see a number of special contrivances, if we may so 

 call them, to ensure the protection of the seed. 

 The Coltsfoot, which flowers in February, and 

 ripens its seed very quickly, at a time when the 

 weather is generally very inclement, is a beautiful 

 illustration of this. The seeds of this plant, as of 

 all other composite plants, are naked, or rather the 

 thin capsule becomes part of the seed, and the latter 

 has not the protection of a seed-vessel, and is, there- 



