Chap. 2.] THE INFLUENCE OF WEATHER ON TREES. 443 



back again upon the roots of the plants, adding greatly to 

 their strength thereby ; and not only this, but they afford a 

 gradual supply of moisture as well, that is both pure and of 

 remarkable lightness, from the fact that snow is only the 

 foam of the waters of heaven. Hence it is that the moisture 

 of snow does not drench and engulph everything all at once, 

 but gradually trickles downwards, in proportion to the thirst of 

 the plant, nurturing it as though from the breast, instead of 

 producing an inundation. The earth, too, ferments under this 

 influence, and becomes filled with her own emanations : not 

 exhausted by the seeds in her bosom, swollen as they are with 

 milk, 22 she smiles in the warm and balmy hours, when the time 

 comes for opening it. It is in this way, more particularly, 

 that corn fattens apace, except, indeed, in those climates in 

 which the atmosphere is always warm, Egypt for example ; for 

 there the continuance of the same temperature and the force of 

 habit are productive of the same effects as the modifications of 

 temperature in other countries. 



At the same time it is equally necessary in every climate 

 that there should be no noxious influence in existence. Thus, 

 for instance, in the greater part of the world, that precocious 

 germination which has been encouraged by the indulgent tempe- 

 rature of the weather, is sure to be nipped by the intense colds 

 that ensue. Hence it is that late winters are so injurious, 

 and such they prove to the trees of the forest even ; indeed, 

 these last are more particularly exposed to the ill effects of a 

 late winter, oppressed as they are by the density of their 

 foliage, and human agency being unable to succour them ; for 

 it would be quite impossible to cover 23 the more tender forest 

 trees with wisps of straw. Rains, then, are favourable to 

 vegetation — first of all, during the winter season, and next, 

 just previously to germination ; the third period for them being 

 that of the formation of the fruit, though not immediately, 

 and only, in fact, when the produce of the tree shows itself 

 strong and healthy. 



23 " Lactescentibus." Fee remarks on the appropriateness of this expres- 

 sion, as the act of germination, he says, in the cereals and all the seeds in 

 which the perisperm is feculent, changes the fecula into an emulsive 

 liquid, in which state ' the seed may be said, with Pliny, to be 

 "lactescent." 



23 Which appears to have been extensively done with the young garden 

 trees. 



