THE FALL OF THE LEAF 



LATE Autumn, which marks to many of us the beginning 

 of Winter work and Winter pleasures, means to the 

 wide world of life an ebb-tide sometimes, indeed, a period 

 for rest and recuperation, or, as is often the case, a time for 

 dying, but always an ebb-tide. And one of the impressive 

 and extraordinarily beautiful signs of this, more striking 

 than the homing of the birds or the hibernation of mammals, 

 is the fall of the leaf the index to the fall of the year. So 

 it is worth thinking awhile over the familiar sight of the 

 withering and falling leaves. 



We have seen that the life of the plant is tidal ; it sets 

 in with a flood in Spring, manifesting itself in growth of 

 stem and exuberance of foliage ; it rises to the high-water 

 mark, and turns in Summer when the blossoms burst and 

 the flowers shine forth ; it is well on the ebb by Autumn, 

 bearing on its breast all manner of ripe fruits and seeds, 

 potent treasures to be cast on the shores of another Spring. 

 Each of these tidal periods, one may say, has its character- 

 istic colour : green and gold are the colours of young 

 Spring ; orange, red, and purple mark the full splendour of 

 Summer flowers ; and Autumn, with its flame-like, often 

 blood-like, withering leaves, rivals all that has gone before. 

 Is it not true to say that the ebb-tide gleams with the 

 glare of burning wrecks ? 



Throughout the Summer the leaf has lived an intense 

 life, far more intense than we are inclined to give plants 

 credit for, building up with the aid of the sunlight no small 



