Chap. 35.] TREES WITH LEAVES OF VARIOUS COLOURS. 37 O 



tioned — a list which it would be tedious to enumerate — lose 

 their leaves, and it has been observed that the leaf does not 

 dry up and wither unless it is thin, broad, and soft ; while, 

 on the other hand, the leaves that do not fall are those which 

 are fleshy, thick, and narrow. 47 It is an erroneous theory 

 that the leaf does not fall in those trees the juices of which 

 are more unctuous than the rest ; for who could make out that 

 such is the case with the holm-oak, for instance ? Timaeus, 

 the mathematician, is of opinion that the leaves fall while the 

 sun is passing through the sign of Scorpio, being acted upon by 

 the influences of that luminary, and a certain venom which 

 exists in the atmosphere : but then we have a right to wonder 

 how it is that, the same reasons existing, the same influence 

 is not exercised equally on all. 



The leaves of most trees fall in autumn, but in some at a 

 later period, remaining on the tree till the approach of winter, 

 it making no difference whether they have germinated at an 

 earlier period or a later, seeing that some that are the very 

 first to bud are among the last to lose their leaves — the 

 almond, the ash, and the elder, for instance : the mulberry, 

 on the other hand, buds the last of all, and loses its leave s 

 among the very first. The soil, too, exercises a very consi- 

 derable influence in this respect: the leaves falling sooner 

 where it is dry and thin, and more particularly when the tree 

 is old : indeed, there are many trees that lose them before the 

 fruit is ripe, as in the case of the late fig, for instance, and the 

 winter pear : on the pomegranate, too, the fruit, when ripe, 

 beholds nothing but the trunk of the parent tree. And not 

 even upon those trees which always retain their foliage do the 

 same leaves always remain, for as others shoot up beneath them, 

 the old leaves gradually wither away : this takes place about 

 the solstices more particularly. 



CHAP. 35. TREES WHICH HAVE LEAVES OF VARIOUS COLOURS; 



TREES WITH LEAVES OF VARIOUS SHAPES. THREE VARIETIES 

 OF THE POPLAR. 



The leaves continue the same upon every species of tree, 



47 This last assertion, Fee says, is far from true, in relation to the coni- 

 ferous trees. 



