HOW THE PLANTS WAKE UP 



145 



most 



mer and autumn the plants are laying up a store of food for coming 

 winter and spring. Day by day they add to the store, mineral food 

 brought up from the soil through the roots, and starch manu- 

 factured in the leaves. The 

 plant's active growth of spring 

 and early summer has lessened 

 or ceased, and in full leaf and 

 full vigor for acquiring food, 

 but with little or no present 

 use for it, the 



r 



plant stores its 



daily surplus in 



whatever place 



convenient : the 



adder's tongue, in the bulbs; 



spring beauty, in the tubers; 



anemonella, in the thick roots; 



the trees and shrubs, in the 



sapwood, the roots, the twigs, 



and sometimes even in the 



pith, when that stays alive 



from year to year. 



The annual plants lay up 

 nothing and when the frosts of 

 autumn come they die, with 

 the grasshopper and the stiffen- 

 ing katydid. But the other 

 plants shed their leaves and 

 begin their winter's sleep 

 gorged, and surfeited, and fat 

 with food. In the evergreens 

 even the nooks and crannies 

 of the leaves are used for 

 storage. 



" In the fall," said the adder's tongue, "we are so sleepy. Even 

 the mellow Indian summer doesn't make us wide awake. And its 

 well for us that it doesn't . If we started growing in those tempting 

 days we should use up our winter's supply of food, and freeze to 

 death later. The warm-country plants that came north and were 

 foolish enough to start growing in Indian summer were all killed 



The adder's tongue, showing its under- 

 ground storehouse. 



Drawn by F. Dana Gibson, a pupil in 

 seventh grade. 



