CHAPTER XII. 



THE DEATH OF THE TREE IS FOUNDED ON AN INNER LAW OF 

 ITS ORGANISM, AND IS NOT THE RESULT OF ACCIDENTAL 



CAUSES. 



WE have, in the preceding chapters, traced the develop- 

 ment of the tree, from the first appearance of life in the 

 germinating seed, till the period when it arrives at an adult 

 state, so as to be capable of flowering and reproduction. 

 But this history would be incomplete if we did not consider 

 trees in the decline of life, and review those causes which 

 produce their old age, decay, and the ultimate dissolution 

 of the several parts of their fabric. 



The individual existence of a plant usually terminates 

 with the formation of its flowers and seed. This law ap- 

 plies at least to annuals and biennials. In herbaceous 

 perennials and shrubs, on the contrary, those branches only 

 die which terminate in flowers, or in an inflorescence. With 

 trees, at length, death extends not to the whole flowering 

 axis, but only to its upper part, which dies down to the 

 origin of the last side shoots. And the reason is plain : 

 the mother shoot is nourished and its life secured by the 

 daughter shoots to which it gives birth. If the reader also 

 take the fact into consideration, that of the numerous axes 

 of a tree, only a small number, in proportion to the others, 

 terminate in flowers, he will clearly perceive that the tree 

 has, despite the formation of its flowers, ample means of 

 an independent continuance of its growth and life. 



But, we see that, notwithstanding the numerous perma- 

 nently vegetative branches which the tree possesses, as a 

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