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NATURE'S CALENDAR 



November 18 



November 19 



in the restful tranquillity of Indian sum- 

 mer days the woods are full of the shim- 

 mer of leaves fluttering down to lie crisp 

 and rustling under your tread, or to be 

 sent whirling by some frightened, whir- 

 ring partridge. 



Pick up one of these leaves and exam- 

 ine it. It is so dry you may perhaps 

 pinch it to powder between your thumb 

 and finger. It looks, and feels, and really 

 is, dead, and at first thought that seems 

 to explain its fall. But wait. Over there 

 is a heap of brush cut last summer, but 

 most of the leaves still cling to the sev- 

 ered branches. Observe that horn-beam 

 down by the ridge, which was scorched by 

 the fire in June. Its roots and trunk 

 were killed, but all its leaves remain— no 

 longer green, but still attached. Plainly, 

 then, the death of a leaf is not necessarily 

 followed by its falling, until it rots away. 

 On the other hand, when the autumn is 

 " late," warm, and moist, a great deal of 

 foliage lets go before it has lost much 

 greenness, and the presence or absence 

 of frost seems really to have little to do 

 with it. 



It appears, then, that this process is one 

 of natural severance between the leaf, 

 stalk, and twig. This is the fact, and its 

 cause IS the pushing forward of a new leaf- 

 bud underneath the point of attachment. 

 Leaves spring upon trees only at definite 

 points. Each successive set is placed 

 precisely as was its predecessor, and for 



