AUTUMN 



or as an effort towards continuance, and we un- 

 doubtedly miss part of the Biology of Autumn if we 

 do not recognize it as a time of preparation for 

 continued life. 



The plant has been storing all summer, and now 

 the reserves are all passing from the more perishable 

 parts, from leaf to stem, from stem to root. There 

 are stores in many buds, well protected by scales 

 which, themselves dying away, save the delicate life 

 within ; there are stores in seeds, similarly protected 

 by dead husks ; and so it is with tuber and root- 

 stock, corm and bulb, all are stores. The beavers 

 store branches cut into convenient lengths, the 

 squirrels store nuts, the field-mice grain, the moles 

 earth-worms, and so on through a long list. Many 

 insects store provender for offspring which they will 

 not survive to see. Some ants store grain, biting 

 at the embryo and thus preventing germination ; 

 others chew grain and store it in biscuit form ; a 

 few take their cows the Aphides with them into 

 winter quarters. It is said that hive-bees become 

 lazy in countries where there is practically no 

 winter, which corroborates the suggestion that the 

 success of North Temperate peoples is partly due 

 to that discipline in foresight, as well as to the 

 punctuation of life, which the marked seasonal 

 changes impose. 



The Rest of Autumn 



Autumn is the evening of the year, the beginning 

 of rest, the curfew, as we have said ; but we must 

 correct the picture of a dying world with a thought 



141 



