SECT. Ill, NATURAL DECAY. 50? 



is a phenomenon familiar to every body, and com- 

 prehends the fall of the leaf, the fall of the flower, 

 and the fall of the fruit. 



ARTICLE 1. The Fall of the Leaf. The fall of 

 the leaf, or annual defoliation of the plant, com- 

 mences for the most part with the colds of autumn, 

 and is accelerated by the frosts of winter, that strip 

 the forest of its foliage, and the landscape of its 

 verdure. But there are some trees that retain their 

 leaves throughout the whole of the winter, though 

 changed to a dull and dusky brown, as those of the 

 Beech-tree ; and there are others that retain them 

 even in verdure till the succeeding spring, w r hen 

 they ultimately fall. Such plants are denominated 

 Evergreens. 



It was at one time indeed a vulgar error, and 

 perhaps it continues to be so still, that Evergreens 

 never shed their leaves at all. This error may be 

 traced back even to the period of the fabulous his- 

 tory of the Greeks, with whose mythology it was 

 closely interwoven, at least in one particular ex-* 

 ample as related by Theophrastus ; who says that in 

 the country of Cortynia, in Crete, it was reported 

 there was a Plane-tree growing by a fountain which 

 never shed its leaves, being the tree under the 

 shade of which Jupiter was said to have had his 

 interview with Europa.* 



* Ev Kpyirri Je, teyeTai, wXaravov -nva wou v irt yopTWoux. Trpo; 



o Zsy$. Heft <pyjv. TO. A. 



