238 THE RING OF NATURE 



carry if it retained its leaves. Beyond those two 

 we need not go. 



The stripping of the trees is an anticipation of 

 the cold weather that brings those drawbacks. 

 The tree that waits till it is cold, as here and 

 there an oak does, will not be able to lose its leaves, 

 but must wear them in shrivelled state till the 

 spring. Of two trees, the one that happens to 

 have shed its leaves when the cold comes will be 

 the better off, and so it has come about that nearly 

 all the broad-leaved trees have developed the habit 

 of unrobing slowly during the fine days of autumn. 



If it were merely a matter of throwing the leaves 

 off, what an immense amount of capital the trees 

 would lose, and how much richer would the leaf- 

 mould be. Nature is not so spendthrift as all 

 that. Just as the tadpole, instead of shedding its 

 tail as some suppose, slowly absorbs it into its body 

 for the nutriment of other parts, so the trees 

 suck their leaves dry of the starches and sugars 

 before throwing away the empty skeletons. 



There is an interesting summer experiment to 

 show the chemical action of the leaf-juices. Blot 

 out the light from a portion of the leaf by pinning 

 a disk of champagne cork to it. Leave it in the 

 open air for a few days (the leaf being still on its 

 plant and growing as before). Now bleach the 

 leaf by first dipping it in boiling water and then 

 soaking for a day or two in methylated spirits. 

 All but the starch will have gone out, and you can 

 tell where the starch is by dipping it in iodine 



