14 THE BUILDING UP OF THE 



of this book to establish this fact by a direct appeal to 

 nature and experience. And first of all we will give a 

 brief sketch of the life-history of a tree from infancy to 

 puberty, or from the commencement of germination till 

 the period when the tree reaches its maximum height, and 

 puts forth its flowers and fruit. By so doing, we shall be 

 able to show the principles on which trees are constructed, 

 and the reader will form for himself a correct idea or in- 

 tellectual picture of a tree. As this is all-important to a 

 thorough understanding of the principles inculcated in 

 this book, we earnestly request that the purely botanical 

 portion of it may have a most careful and attentive peru- 

 sal. 



The First Tear's Growth. If we plant a beech-nut in a 

 suitable soil, when spring and warm weather come it will 

 begin to germinate. It first attracts the moisture of the 

 soil itself. This produces the softening and swelling of 

 the tough covering of the nut, which is finally ruptured 

 by the growth of the embryo or infant beech-tree in its 

 interior, which sends downward, through the lacerated in- 

 tegument or seed-cover, a young rootlet, and upwards a 

 young stem, to which are attached the first pair of leaves. 

 These leaves, which are thick and fleshy, and constituted 

 the great bulk of the seed, are in reality the nursing-leaves 

 of the young embryo. Lifted above the ground and ex- 

 posed to the light of the sun, they speedily expand, take 

 a leaflike texture and hue, and become so much enlarged 

 that they present quite a different appearance to that 

 which they exhibited when they were folded together and 

 enveloped by the seed-skin. 



I call them nursing-leaves (folia nutrientia\ because 

 these words convey a more correct idea of the services which 

 they render the plant, and are therefore better than the 

 word cotyledons, or seed-leaves, terms employed by other 

 writers. These nursing-leaves are only temporary appen- 

 dages of the axis or stem, and perform a distinct and sepa- 

 rate duty in connection with the building-up of the tree. 



