in. THE LEAF. 4:9 



and that the roots alone could not make it ; and that, 

 therefore, the course of it must be, in great part, the re- 

 sult or process of the actual making. But I will read 

 now, patiently ; for I know you will tell me much that is 

 worth hearing, though not perhaps what I want. 



Yes ; now that I have read Lindley's statement carefully, 

 1 find it is full of precious things ; and this is what, with 

 thinking over it, I can gather for you. 



17. First, towards the end of January, as the light en- 

 larges, and the trees revive from their rest, there is a 

 general liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius in their 

 steins ; and I suppose there is really a great deal of mois- 

 ture rapidly absorbed from the earth in most cases ; and 

 that 'this absorption is a great help to the sun in drying 

 the winter's damp out of it for us : then, with that strange 

 vital power, which scientific people are usually as afraid 

 of naming as common people are afraid of naming Death, 

 the tree gives the gathered earth and water a changed 

 existence ; and to this new-born liquid an upward motion 

 from the earth, as our blood has from the heart ; for the 

 life of the tree is out of the earth; and this 'upward mo- 

 tion has a mechanical power in pushing on the growth. 

 " Forced onward by the current of sap, the plumule as- 

 cends," (Lindley, p. 132,) this blood of the tree having 

 to supply, exactly as our own blood has, not only the form- 

 ing powers of substance, but a continual evaporation, 

 "approximately seventeen times more than that of the 



human body," while the force of motion in the sap " is 

 3 



