134 
ward. The whole plant is then apparently at a standstill 
for a time, but when it has matured its buds it starts out 
again and makes another growth just like the first, though 
not usually so long. In this way the tree may make two, 
three, or more distinct growths the same year, depending 
on the age of the tree, and other conditions. ‘Trees that 
make their growth continuously stretch out most rapidly 
at first, becoming slower and slower until growth ceases. 
The number of buds, leaves or joints which such a branch 
will form depends on circumstances; its position on the 
tree, the character of the season, etc., Terminal branches 
not only grow longer, in both senses, than lateral ones, but 
produce more buds. Water-sprouts grow longer and 
produce more buds than either. If a branch is cut off so 
that all the growth is forced into what would have made 
a short lateral, it then takes the nature of a terminal 
branch, and what would otherwise have made a bud for 
next year’s growth, is developed right along into this 
year’s branch, which grows more rapidly, makes more 
leaves in the same length of time, and also ripens later in 
the season. 
While no notes have been kept, it has seemed to me 
that our trees growing ina deep rich soil have colored 
more after a dry season than after a wet one. There can 
be no question that there is a great difference in the 
intensity of the color which the same tree will take on in 
different seasons. 
We have in the experimental orchard two kinds of 
plums, of which some are growing on their own roots, 
and the rest on the roots of peach trees. The plum trees 
on peach roots color from ten days to two weeks earlier 
than those on plum roots, and they also drop that much 
earlier. In the fall of 1892 the plum on peach roots 
colored more highly than that on its own roots, but the 
past fall there was little or no difference in the intensity 
of color. 
The leaves on the outer branches of our dense growing 
trees color and drop off while the inner ones are still on 
and green. This is very noticeable in the hard maple 
and may be seen in the elm and ash to some extent. I 
have frequently seen hard maples with the naked twigs 
sticking out two or three feet all round, while the 
middle of the tree was still green and had dropped 
scarcely a leaf. 
There is a difference in the time of coloring of leaves 
on trees of the same species, even when they are in 
perfect health and are under the same conditions. The 
difference in the time of leafing is frequently spoken of, 
but I do not remember anyone having noticed that there 
is a corresponding difference in the season of dropping 
the leaves in many species. Leaves that color first also 
drop first; but there does not seem to be any definite 
relation between the time of leafing and the time of 
shedding leaves. 
There is not only a difference in the season of coloring, 
but also a difference in the color of individual trees. 
This difference is very marked in some species, and in 
others is scarcely noticeable. The ash, elm and walnut 
each has a characteristic yellow that is comparatively 
uniform, but other species vary considerably. The hard 
maple, plum, blackberry, etc., may be seen varying from 
a pale yellow or orange to a very bright scarlet. The 
same individuals take the same color, though to the same 
degree, year after year, just as a variety of apples does, 
and there is no doubt but that a characteristic season and 
color could be propagated in the leaf of the maple just as 
in the fruit of the apple or pear. 
It is a practice, not uncommon among some grape 
growers, to girdle the vines to make the fruit ripen 
earlier. This makes a difference of something like a 
week in the season, and the fruit is larger though not so 
SES IN Cle, 
‘full light, on the outer branches. 
Vol. XXIII. No. 579 
good in quality. Our own plum trees on plum roots have 
so far borne no fruit, but plum growers inform me that 
the Wild Goose and some other varieties when grown on 
peach roots ripen and are gone before those on plum 
roots have begun to ripen. 
The play song beginning, ‘‘ The higher up in the cherry 
tree the riper grows the cherry,” expresses a familiar fact 
that is seen not only in the cherry but more or less in all 
our tree fruits. Those most fully exposed to the light 
not only ripen more thoroughly, but ripen earlier and 
color more highly than those in the shade. Apples that 
grow in the middle of a dense growing tree never do as 
well nor attain as high a quality as those exposed to the 
Whether it is the light 
or the place where the apple happens to grow that makes 
the difference, I do not know; grapes color as well and the 
quality is as good when grown in bags as when fully 
exposed. Apples grown on hilly or comparatively thin 
land, where there is little vegetable matter, are more 
highly colored and are of better quality than those grown 
on deep rich soils. 
There is a correlation in some species between the 
color of the ripe fruit and the autumn leaves. Generally 
the blackberry is a very brilliant autumn plant, but the 
varieties bearing fruits that are white when ripe have 
pale yellow autumn leaves. Both the black and red rasp- 
berry groups have reddish colored autumn leaves, but 
there are in both these a few varieties with yellow fruits. 
and the autumn leaves on these are yellow. The yellow 
fruited plums also have yellow leaves in the fall, and the 
varieties that have most red in the fruit also have most 
red in their autumn leaves. Corresponding differences 
are also seen in the bark of the young wood. I suspect 
this is an albinism of plants which is related to the 
albinism of animals. 
The fruit is a modified branch and its leaves, and so 
we have the fruits and leaves corresponding in these 
ways: 
Fruits vary in their time of ripening; leaves in their 
time of coloring or ripening and falling. y 
Fruits in the top of some kinds of trees ripen earlier 
and more perfectly than those in the body of the tree; 
leaves on the outer branches of some trees color or ripen 
and fall earlier than those in the middle. 
There is an individuality in and a correlation between 
the color of the ripe fruit and the autumn leaves. 
The girdled grape-vine ripens its fruit earlier than 
those not; leaves on girdled or otherwise injured twigs, 
branches, or trees color or ripen earlier than those on 
sound branches or trees, though they do not always fall 
earlier. The colored leaves may hang on until the frost 
takes all off together. 
Both leaves and fruits color more highly on hilly than 
on level land; but color in fruit is an indication of 
maturity. 
We have, then, a relation and a regular gradation: 
The broken leaf, the girdled branch which colors its leaves 
or ripens its fruit earlier, the brighter color of the injured 
tree or vine, the earlier ripening and coloring of the fruit 
and leaves of the plum tree on peach roots, the earlier 
and higher coloring of both fruits and leaves on broken 
land, and the earlier and more complete rrpening of both 
leaves and fruits on the outer branches. Probably the 
leaves on trees in deep rich soils never would color as 
highly as on those on the rougher land, but the probability 
is that if we had a longer season for ripening we would 
have more color. : 
Is there in the high leaf coloring an indication not of 
maturity alone, but of an unnatural maturity that would 
not be found in trees growing in soil and with conditions 
best suited to their wants ? 
