14 THE BUILDING UP OF THE 



in the pathway to pre-eminence. It is the aim of this book 

 to establish this fact by a direct appeal to nature and expe- 

 rience. 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 intellectual 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 perusal. Not only ought the plates at the end 

 of the volume to be consulted, but verified by a personal ex- 

 amination of the trees to which reference is made. 



The First Year'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 integument 

 or seed cover, a young rootlet, and upward 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 em- 

 bryo. Lifted above the ground and exposed 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. 



