228 LIFE IN DEATH, AS MANIFEST 



know well that between any autumn and the following spring we 

 shall have more or less of the latter, with a great deal less of the 

 former. Hence, very little, if any, assimilation could be carried 

 on in the leaves by the Chlorophyll, even if they hung on all the 

 winter through. 



The tree, therefore, is very much in the position of some of 

 our modern houses of business, which, during the season, put 

 forth branches at the various watering places, and do a thriving 

 trade. But, when winter drives custom away, they find it pay 

 best to withdraw their " staff" and stock, and close until the next 

 season. 



It is no less plain that if all leaves remained in situ through 

 the winter, the balance of profit would turn against the parent 

 tree instead of for it. Those which, during summer's sunshine, 

 are the great source w^hence the tree draws its supplies and grows 

 thereby, would have themselves to be supplied whilst winter's cold 

 prevailed. The cost of such nourishment and repair through the 

 cold dark months would have to be subtracted from the proceeds 

 of summer work. The tree would be by this so much the loser that 

 plain principles of economy, working in nature according to the 

 law of each organism's being, not by caprice as in human nature, 

 demand their removal. 



(2) But even this called-for removal is done economically. 

 As the business firm which closes its season-shops takes good care 

 first to remove all valuables, so before the leaves are dropped off 

 their respective branches, they are previously drained of their 

 precious contents by processes which collect, transform, and trans- 

 port them into persistent reserves in the parent organism. Thus, 

 when winter once more melts into spring, and the vital mysteries 

 of spring-energy begin to express themselves in renewed growth, 

 there are materials at hand to work upon, so that forces from within 

 and from below may combine to produce the new buds whence are 

 to come the twigs, branches, and leaves, for another season's 

 ingathering. 



To describe in detail the draining processes referred to, would 

 require no little space. It must suffice here to note that it varies 

 in different trees. In the Vine, the form of the Chlorophyll 

 corpuscles is first destroyed ; then the colour goes. In the Elder 



