Popular Errors respecting Trees. 53 



trees or shrubs, blossoming very often during the cool season, 

 he observes how much the species introduced from more 

 northern countries contrast with these indigenous species in 

 their mode of vegetation. 



The oak and the beech, for instance, continue to lose their 

 leaves during the winter, although the weather is then milder 

 than it is in several parts of Europe during the summer. 

 Thus, at Funchal, the leaves of oaks (duercus pedmiculata) 

 planted in some public gardens and promenades began* to 

 grow yellow at the end of October, and gradually became 

 dried up to the 1st of January. Some isolated trees began to 

 shoot by the 10th of January, and were green again on the 

 6th of February ; but all the others remained in a state of 

 repose, and were not generally covered with new leaves until 

 the 20th of February. In Mr, Gordon's garden, at an eleva- 

 tion of 1800 feet, they were a month later. 



The leaves of the beech became yellow at Funchal by the 

 8th of November ; at Mr. Gordon's garden by the 28th of 

 October. The leaves, or at least the greater part of them, 

 remained in a dry state upon the trees until they began to 

 shoot in the spring, which was about the 1st of April, At 

 Funchal, the terminal buds were open by the 8th of April, 

 and the lateral a little later. 



At Glaris, the period of repose of the beech, on an average, 

 is 194 days ; in Madeira, where the cold season is like the 

 summer at Glaris, it is 149 days. The difference is only 45 

 days. The oak in Switzerland has a period of repose nearly 

 equal to that of the beech, whilst at Madeira it is only 110 

 days, or 49 days less than the beech. M. Heer supposes this 

 difference may arise from the beeches of Madeira having 

 been introduced from England, and the oaks from Portugal, 

 so that the latter would have previously acquired the habit of 

 losing their leaves later, and vegetating sooner, than in the 

 centre of Europe. 



M. Heer ought perhaps to have added, what he no doubt 

 knows, that sudden variations of temperature in 24 hours, 

 especially the instantaneous diminution to 32° Fahr., or 

 lower, are one of the great causes of the fall of leaves in 



