THE BEECH. 61 



the manner of a lady's fan, whence it is that on a 

 fine warm day, in the beech (as happens in the syca- 

 more and several other trees), there seems an almost 

 miraculous start into life. The <mode in which leaves 

 are folded while in the bud, varies most wonderfully. 

 Sometimes the leaf is rolled up like a scroll of paper. 

 Sometimes it is doubly rolled, or from each edge 

 towards the central line, and not infrequently this 

 condition is reversed by the roll being directed 

 backwards. There are trees, and herbaceous plants 

 also, in which the rolling is like that of a coil of 

 ribbon ; and here in the beech, as we have said, the 

 folding is like that of a fan. The rapidity with 

 which leaves expand is of course greatly influenced 

 by their primitive condition, and thus it is more to 

 the arrangement of the parts than to any casual or 

 external circumstance that we are to look for the 

 explanation of their very various rate of opening. 

 So true is it, once over again, that when we desire 

 to discover truth, we must go inside. The differ- 

 ences in the arrangement of the leaves in the bud 

 often accompany considerable differences in other 

 particulars. The plum-tree, for instance, and the 

 cherry-tree, are not more distinct in their produce 

 than in this curious particular of the early leaf- 

 folding, for while in the plum-tree the " vernation " 

 is " convolute," in the cherry-tree it is " condupli- 

 cate." 



While young, the leaves of the beech are orna- 



