FRUITS AND AUTUMNAL DAYS. 73 



wards, just as certain features in the human face are 

 in infancy merely forehead and nose, and we have to 

 wait till the 'teens for their established shape. This 

 is very prettily marked in seedling trees, such as 

 the sycamore. The full-grown leaf is shaped like that 

 of the vine. Three great broad angles divide the 

 surface, and these are again distributed into smaller 

 angles. But while young, the leaf is simply oval and 

 attenuated, the angles not appearing till the tree is 

 many months old, if tree it can be called before a 

 winter has passed over it. In other respects the 

 foliage of plants is often inferior while young, com- 

 pared with its condition when the flowers are about to 

 burst. When the flowers are first opening, the pecul- 

 iar properties and qualities of the leaves are also most 

 remarkable. If it be bitterness, or aroma, or adapt- 

 edness for use in medicine that characterizes the 

 leaves, this is the period when they should be col- 

 lected. Before the flowers appear, they are compar- 

 atively deficient ; in the old age of the plant they have 

 nothing to yield. Hence it may be observed that in 

 the herb markets, the great sheaves thither brought 

 of sanctuary, betony, blushwort, and a score of 

 others, are always loaded at one extremity with their 

 withered corollas. Hence, too, in districts where 

 there is great faith in herb-teas of different kinds, 

 plants valued for such service, and that reproduce 

 themselves annually from seed, in time become very 

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