184 ROUND THE YEAR 



which the leaves throw off rain, gathering up the 

 moisture into big drops, which roll to the earth about 

 the roots instead of choking the breathing-pores, and 

 the waxy bloom which brings this result about, are 

 well worth both study and admiration. I hold with 

 Andrew Fairservice that a kail-blade by moonlight is 

 like a lady in her diamonds. Many of the drops 

 which we call dew-drops are not deposited upon the 

 leaves by condensation of vapour, but exuded as 

 liquid. You can see this very plainly in the Cabbage, 

 for the drops appear at certain points only on the 

 margin of the leaf, where veins end. Here are special 

 water-pores. Drops are exuded whenever the tissues 

 of the plant are chilled, most abundantly when a cold 

 night, whether clear or cloudy, follows a hot, damp day. 

 True dew-drops form only beneath a clear sky, and con- 

 dense as a multitude of minute globules, which may 

 afterwards roll together. The mere cabbage-stalk is 

 a wonder in its way if carefully examined. Look out 

 for cabbage-stalks which have been thrown aside to 

 bleach in the rain and sun, not in the filthy air of a 

 town, but on a country farm. You will see the stout 

 network of fibres, the meshes which allow the cellular 

 tissues to expand and to communicate with one 

 another, the bundles of vessels which pass to the 

 roots and the leaves. If you can get a turnip bleached 

 in the same way, compare the two, and notice that 

 the turnip is merely a bulge upon what is essentially 

 a cabbage-stalk too, though it is here called a root. 

 There is plenty of occupation, to say nothing of pro- 

 vocation, to be got out of the Insects which haunt a 

 cabbage-ground. But the chief interest of cabbages, 



