CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



fuchsia, common on many California hillsides ; and a very 

 beautiful plant it is ! It is not strange that the humming 

 birds like to visit its brilliant scarlet flowers. If you watch, 

 you can see how the birds carry pollen for the flowers. 



Perhaps, as you were collecting your plants, you 

 noticed that the poison oak leaves were turning red, or that 

 the sycamore leaves were beginning to look dull and dry. 

 Really these plants were getting ready to take a rest, perhaps 

 because the summer had been so hard for them. In cold 

 and in dry climates there are many trees and shrubs that do 

 not try to meet hard times, but drop all their leaves and re- 

 main idle until better times; they are called deciduous. In 

 very dry countries, the leaves fall when the dry air takes too 

 much moisture from them; in cold countries, when the soil 

 gets too cold to supply water. It is not easy to explain why 

 our trees and shrubs drop their leaves just when they do. 

 Most plants have definite times for doing certain things, and 

 sometimes it is impossible to explain why ; then we give 

 the fact a long name, we call it periodicity. 



Perhaps it seems to you a great waste for the trees to 

 lose their thousands of leaves every year ; but the waste is 

 not so great as it seems. Before the leaves fall, the most 

 valuable materials emigrate to the stem, to be used later by 

 the new leaves. The chlorophyll is broken up and carried 

 away, and, in the many changes that take place, sometimes 

 very brilliant colors are produced. Perhaps you know 

 something about the gorgeous autumn colors of forests in 

 our Eastern States. Old leaves always contain much min- 

 eral matter that has been left over from food-making. 

 Have you not noticed the amount of ashes remaining after 

 leaves have been burned ? This waste matter is given back 

 to the earth as the leaves decay, and can be used again. 

 The decaying leaves enrich the soil in other ways, and also 

 help to keep it moist. 



Be sure, during the rest of the year, to watch the 



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