TREES 



PART I 

 THE LIFE OF THE TREES 



The swift unfolding of the leaves in spring is always a 

 miracle. One day the budded twigs are still wrapped in 

 the deep sleep of winter. A trace of green appears about 

 the edges of the bud scales — they loosen and fall, and the 

 tender green shoot looks timidly out and begins to unfold 

 its crumpled leaves. Soon the delicate blade broadens and 

 takes on the texture and familiar appearance of the grown- 

 up leaf. Behold! while we watched the single shoot the 

 bare tree has clothed itself in the green canopy of summer. 



How can this miracle take place. '^ How does the tree 

 come into full leaf, sometimes within a fraction of a week.'* 

 It could never happen except for the store of concentrated 

 food that the sap dissolves in spring and carries to the 

 buds, and for the remarkable activity of the cambium cells 

 within the buds. 



What is a bud.'^ It is a shoot in miniature — its leaves or 

 flowers, or both, formed with wondrous completeness in 

 the previous summer. About its base are crowded leaves 

 so hardened and overlapped as to cover and protect the 

 tender shoot. All the tree can ever express of beauty or 

 of energy comes out of these precious little *' growing 

 points," wrapped up all winter, but impatient, as spring 



3 



