CHARACTBBS IN WINTER TWIGS 



43 



vegetable kingdom. Exataine the oaks and beeches, and other trees 

 which hold dead leaves during the winter. Is this due to nou-artieu- 

 lar leaf-casting, or merely to the firmness of attachment to the plant? 

 Do these old leaves fall as soon as the twig begins to swell in the 

 spring, or do they hang 

 year after year, until 

 I torn off by the ele- 

 ments? 



40. It has been 

 said (35) that the 

 features of winter 

 twigs are charac- 

 teristic of the (lif- 

 erent kinds of 

 plants. Now let 

 the pupil collect 

 the twigs of ap- 

 ple and pear, 

 different kinds of 

 maples, currants and gooseberries, various oaks, or 

 any other closely related plants which grow in his 

 neighborhood, and then compare the one with the 

 other. This done, let him collect indiscriminately of 

 any plants he meets, and then sort the twigs into 

 similar kinds. He will soon discover that plants 

 have characteristic marks or features in winter as 

 well as in summer. 



Fig. 43. 

 Twigs of various willows. 



40a. Some of the kinds of difference which the pupil may ex- 

 pect to find are shown in the pictures. In Fig. 42, a is the 



