THE FALL OF THE YEAR 115 
there is the fine surgery which cuts the link between 
dying and living and at the same time bandages 
the wound (recalling quaintly enough the throwing- 
off of a leg in crab and lobster); and there is 
the “beauty for ashes’? due to the breaking up 
of the chlorophyll and the formation of special 
decomposition pigments like anthocyan. And, 
looking ahead, we see the earthworms dragging 
the fallen leaves into their burrows, and thereby 
making vegetable mold in which they sometimes, 
all unconsciously, plant the seeds of future 
trees. We wonder whether there is in animate 
Nature any more beautiful sequence of adaptive 
events, 
The wasps’ nest, a model of “ efficiency” in the 
summer-time, is falling into ruins; all the tenants 
have gone, and intruders are pillaging the edifice. 
The ranks of the workers were thinned weeks ago 
by bad weather and cold; the parent queen died 
of exhaustion; the surviving workers ate up the 
remaining grubs and died also; the drones likewise 
disappeared, so now the sole survivors of the colony 
are the young queens, who, after mating, sought out 
secluded corners where they have fallen into their 
“winter sleep.” For humble-bees the story is in a 
general way the same; only the young queens are 
left, hidden in their winter quarters. Contrast this, 
however, with hive-bees under man’s egis. The 
elaboration of the storing instincts, the greater 
division of labor and solidarity, and the more 
permanent “hive” have made it possible for the 
, 
