63 FOLIAGE OF TREES AND PLANTS. 



which whirl them along in crowds to the hedges, 

 trenches, and ditches around : here they accumulate 

 and decay, furnishing, in conjunction with other 

 vegetable decompositions, a very nutritive earth, 

 as is manifest by the wild plants growing in those 

 situations, for notwithstanding all the obstructions 

 of shade, thorns, and briers, they are generally 

 found in great luxuriance or health. This earth, in 

 time crumbled by frosts, and washed by rains into 

 the ditches from the banks, becomes accumulated 

 there, and we collect it, compost it with other mat- 

 ters, and use it as a beneficial dressing for our cul- 

 tivated lands : many of these leaves, however, remain 

 near the tree, and soon communicate their virtues 

 to the herbage; some are consumed by natural 

 consequences, others are attacked by small fungi, 

 which break their surfaces, admit moisture, and 

 facilitate decay ; the worm now seizes them as his 

 portion, and, having fed upon a part, draws the 

 remainder into the earth, where a rapid separation 

 of the parts takes place, and they are received 

 through the roots into vegetable circulation anew ; 

 and thus the beautiful foliage which has been so 

 pleasing during our summer months, supplied the 

 tree with sustenance to increase its magnitude, and 

 all the requisites demanded by its fruits and pro- 

 ducts has glowed perhaps with splendour, and 

 been our admiration in the decline of the year, now 

 returns to the soil, not to encumber it, but to ad- 

 minister health and vigour to a new series of vege- 

 tation, and circulate in combinations hidden from 

 any human perception. 



