256 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



stage from the heat of summer and from dust, 

 from smoke or other injurious influences. The 

 buds of the Plane instead of being produced in the 

 axils of the leaves the angles made by the leaf- 

 stalks with the twigs on which they grow are 

 formed at the bases of the leaf-stalks which are 

 hollowed at the foot to cover them. Only, there- 

 fore, when the old leaves drop off are the newly- 

 formed buds imderneath them revealed. The 

 base of each leaf -stalk is, in fact, a case which 

 neatly and exactly covers and protects the young 

 bud. Before this stage arrives at which the 

 new leaf -buds are left to the rigours of winter by 

 the fall of the protecting leaf-stalks Nature has 

 been busily engaged in swathing the tender tissue 

 of the buds with soft, cold-resisting, silky down, 

 upon which has been placed fur-lined scales. So 

 much has she done to ward off the cold. But the 

 rain and injurious dampness of winter have not 

 been forgotten; for resinous, waterproof cases 

 enwrap the whole, and when the last sere leaf 

 has fluttered to the ground the forerunners of 

 the young foliage are cosily armed against all 

 wintry dangers. 



