2 4 o THE BIOLOGY OF THE SEASONS 



I 



Even the careless, who pause only for a moment to 

 Jisten to the curfew of the year, must perceive the sadness of 

 the notes, "Farewell and Death." They are heard in the 

 calls of the birds passing south who " wail their way from 

 cloud to cloud," in the rustle of the falling leaves, and in 

 the piping of a mournful wind which bears both birds 

 and leaves away. It is truly a time of withering and 

 decadence, of leave-taking and death. 



But a more careful listener will hear very different 

 notes, which tell of the continuance of life in spite of death, 

 of preparation for the future amid the withering of the 

 present. The farewell that seemed for ever is for many 

 more accurately, " Au Revoir," " Auf Wiedersehen." For 

 the tide of life which has now turned in ebb is not one that 

 sinks sullen and empty from a rocky shore ; it is rather 

 like that which bears from some great seaport a fleet of 

 richly laden ships. The ebb of the year is the time when 

 fruits ripen, when seeds are scattered and sown ; it is not 

 an end, it is a new beginning. There is indeed stranding 

 and wreckage, as the dead birds among the jetsam tell 

 us plainly ; but the Autumn fruits are more characteristic. 

 They crown the plant's work for the year, and form the 

 cradles of next year's seedlings ; they protect the young 

 lives within the seeds, and also secure their dispersal. 

 Many of them harden, crack, and split like withered leaves, 

 which is just what many of them are ; others swell and 

 soften into succulence. The nectaries, through which 

 surplus sugars overflowed during flowering, forming feasts 

 of honey for the bees and other welcome visitors, have 

 now closed, and the sweetness is drafted into the ripening 

 fruit. Even the fragrance of the flower may be redistilled 

 in the flavour of the fruit, and the cheerful red glow of 



