162 
LEAVES AND ROOTS 
OU will be surprised to learn that the way in which 
a plant’s leaves grow tells us something of the 
way in which its roots grow. 
Many of you have been overtaken far from home in 
a rainstorm, and have sought shelter under a spreading 
tree. The ground directly beneath the tree has kept 
almost dry even after some hours of rain, but the 
earth just under the tips of the spreading branches got 
very wet: for the great tree acted like a large umbrella; 
and when the raindrops fell upon the smooth leaves, 
which sloped outward and downward, they rolled from 
leaf to leaf till they reached the very lowest, outermost 
leaves of all. From these they fell to the ground, just 
as the drops that gather upon your umbrella run out- 
ward and downward to the umbrella’s edge, and then 
off upon the ground. 
So you can see that the circle of earth which marks 
the spread of the branches above must be specially wet, 
as it received a great part of the rain which fell upon 
the whole tree. 
And whenever you see a tree which sheds the rain 
water in such a circle, you can be pretty sure that, if 
you should dig into the earth a ditch which followed 
this circle, you would soon reach the tips of the new 
root branches of the tree. 
You know that the root does the drinking for the 
plant; and only the newest parts of the root, the fresh 
root tips, are really good for work of this sort. You 
