CONSERVATION IN AUTUMN LEAVES 



IN the autumn tints of the woods there is no evidence 

 that nature is practicing conservation in her use of 

 coloring matter. The lavishness with which she has 

 painted the landscape red, yellow and brown suggests to 

 the layman that she is altogether reckless in her desire to 

 make the country attractive and that she has a tine disre- 

 gard for the war-time supply of pigments. 



To the dendrologist the rich coloring tells a story of 

 true conservation, and gives additional proof that nature 

 never wastes her resources. The brilliant hues of the 

 forests are a manifestation of a plan to use everything 

 to the best possible advantage. The change in coloring 

 which takes place in the leaves during the autumn is the 

 result of chemical processes which are at work in nature's 

 laboratory. It is a part of nature's preparation for win- 

 ter. Science explains that during the spring and summer 

 the leaves have served as factories for the making of the 

 foods necessary for the growth of the trees. This pro- 

 cess of manufacture takes place in numberless tiny cells 

 of each leaf and is carried on by small green bodies which 

 give the leaf its color. These are known as chlorophyll 

 bodies. By taking carbon from the carbonic acid gas of 

 the air and combining it with hydrogen, oxygen and va- 

 rious minerals supplied by the water gathered by the 

 roots these bodies make the necessary food. 



In the fall, when cool weather causes a slowing down 

 of the vital processes the manufacturing ceases and the 

 chlorophyll is broken up into the various substances of 

 which it is composed and the food is sent to the body of 

 the tree to be stored up for use in the spring. All that 

 remains in the cell cavities of the leaf is a watery sub- 

 stance containing a few oil globules and crystals and a 



small number of yellow, strongly refractive bodies which 

 give the leaves the yellow coloring so familiar during 

 the months of the autumn. For the reds and browns 

 sugar is responsible. When there is more sugar in the 

 leaf than can readily be transferred back to the tree its 

 chemical combination with the other substances produces 

 various tints, ranging from the dogwood's red to the red- 

 dish brown of the oak. 



The feeding of the tree itself is only a part of the duty 

 of nature's chemical laboratory. The entire vegetable 

 kingdom depends to a large extent on the food supply 

 created by the leaves. Chlorophyll green is the only sub- 

 stance which has the power to break up rocks and con- 

 vert them into starches and sugars. As the tree drinks 

 in water from the soil the flow carries small particles of 

 rock into the trunk of the tree. When the chloro- 

 phyll is returned to the parent stem by the leaves it works 

 on these particles and through chemical reaction con- 

 verts them into sugars and starches for sustaining the 

 life of the tree. Nature's fine adjustment of things is 

 evidenced in the circumstance that the chlorophyll all 

 disappears from the leaf before the leaf falls and thus 

 protects the surface rocks from any danger of disinte- 

 gration such as might occur if the leaves which are de- 

 posited on them carried this chemical substance. 



With the return to the tree of the food substances the 

 leaves retain relatively large amounts of nitrogen and 

 phosphorus which were originally a part of the soil 

 Through decomposition the fallen leaves enrich the soil 

 and it is because of this and the accumulation of humus 

 that the black earth of the forest floor is so fertile. For 

 this reason the burning of leaves on the forest floor robs 

 the soil of much of its fertility. 



A lil-AI lll-l i. ■M'lMsl'A I'cllr- l.\ IIONOH'I.I'. 



By an official order given by ex-Governor .Sanford B. Dole, this tree was left stand- 

 ing in its original place when the street was improved. 



TREE SAVED BY A GOVERNOR 



BY ALLEN H. WRIGHT 



"WT'HEREVER one may go, he will always 

 '* find something of interest in connection 

 with the trees which may grow- there. 



In the city of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, 

 for instance, one will see in Vineyard street 

 a beautiful specimen of the monkey-pod tree, 

 standing squarely in the center of the thor- 

 oughfare, its great branches extending far 

 over the property-line on either side of the 

 street. 



The interesting story about this tree is 

 that former Governor Sanford B. Dole, who 

 was at one time the president of the short- 

 lived republic which followed the end of the 

 rule by native kings and queens, gave an 

 official order that this tree should be left 

 standing when the street was improved, and 

 so it stands today unharmed, beautiful in 

 its natural spread of branch and shade, act- 

 ing as a guide for autoist or driver to keep to 

 the right side of the highway. 



as 



