382 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



LOSS OF LEAVES BY EVEKGREEis^S, 



^' E. W.,'^ New Albany, Ind., says : "I notice large trees of 

 magnolia grandiflora, that, owing to the severity of last wint^', 

 when the thermometer fell twenty-two degrees below zero, had 

 shed their winter-browned leaves, and seemed apparently dead, re- 

 suming life, and again unfolding their mantle of rich green. The 

 loss of foliage usually proves fatal to evergreens, does it not ?" 



[The fact that the loss of leaves by an evergreen is usually 

 fatal, refers only to coniferous trees or the ''needle" bearing sec- 

 tion. But pine needles are not leaves in the usual acceptation of 

 the term. Pine leaves are adnate or connate with the stem, though 

 when the plants are young or have low vital powers they are some-- 

 times seen wholly free, and not united with the branches. The 

 needles are modified branches, though often called phyllodes. Now 

 we see that the tree having lost its true leaves in a natural way, 

 and forced to rely on a modification of branches to perform 

 the offices of leaves is in a very bad way when these also are lost. 

 There is indeed nothing left out of which leaves can come, and 

 this is the reason why such trees suffer so much. When an ordi- 

 nary tree loses its leaves, the axial bud develops, and makes another 

 crop, and does what, in the pine, has already been done. 



So far from the loss of a leaf in winter to a broadleaved ever- 

 green being an injury, it would probably be a benefit, by lessening 

 the draft by the atmosphere on the plant's liquid capacities. We 

 should not be surprised if a Magnolia grandiflora, often killed in 

 winter in northern latitudes, would be as hardy as other species, if 

 divested of its leaves in autumn. — Ed. G. M.~\ 



A truth well known to all intelligent fruit-growers is that, 

 next to the pear, the wood, leaves and fruit of the apple, when 

 reduced to ashes, contain more potash and phosphate of lime than 

 any other common fruit tree, yet how many supply these to the 

 soil, notwithstanding the hundred instances in which beneficial 

 effects have resulted from the use of ashes ? Above all, how few 

 provide water in quantity large enough to dissolve these mineral 

 elements, so that the roots can avail of them after the ashes are 

 applied ! Only in form of a solution can the roots absorb food. 

 If, then, a given soil is very rich in these mineral elements, and 

 deficient in water to form this solution, the supply of plant food 

 will be insufficient, and the trees will starve to death sooner or 

 later. It is easy to understand, then, how one soil, admirably 

 suited to the wants of the apple tree in all mineral substances, but 

 deficient in water or moisture, and subject to drouth, may not 



