THE FALLING LEAVES 



mainly for strength and to hold it to the ground. 

 How they grip the rocks, fitting themselves to them, 

 as Lowell says, like molten metal! The tree's life 

 is in the fine hairlike rootlets that spring from the 

 rootsj Darwin says those rootlets behave as if 

 they had minute brains in their extremities. They 

 feel their way into the soil; they know the elements 

 the plant wants; some select more lime, others 

 more potash, others more magnesia. The wheat 

 rootlets select more silica to make the stalk; the 

 pea rootlets select more lime: the pea does not 

 need the silica. The individuality of plants and 

 trees in this respect is most remarkable. The 

 cells of each seem to know what particular elements 

 they want from the soil, as of course they do. 



The vital activity of the tree goes on at three 

 points — in the leaves, in the rootlets, and in the 

 cambium layer. The activity of the leaf and root- 

 let furnishes the starchy deposit which forms this 

 generative layer — the milky, mucilaginous girdle 

 of matter between the outer bark and the wood 

 through which the tree grows and increases in size. 

 Generation and regeneration take place through 

 this layer. I have called it the girdle of perpetual 

 youth. It never grows old. It is annually renewed. 

 The heart of the old apple-tree may decay and 

 disappear, indeed the tree may be reduced to a 

 mere shell and many of its branches may die and 

 fall, but the few apples which it still bears attest 



5 



