Tree Study 



737 



that the trees have withdrawn from the leaves the green hfe-substance, the 

 protoplasm-machinery for making the starch, and have stored it snugly in 

 trunk and branch for winter keeping. Thus, only the mineral substances 

 are left in the leaf, and they give the vivid hues. It is a mistake to think 

 that frost causes this brilliance; it is caused by the natural, beautiful, old 

 age of the leaf. When the leaves finally fall, they form a mulch-carpet for 

 the tree that bore them, and add their substance to the humus from which 

 the tree draws new powers for growth. 



After every leaf has fallen, the maple shows why its shade is dense. It 

 has many branches set close and at sharp angles to the trunk, dividing into 

 fine, erect spray, giving the 

 tree a resemblance to a giant 

 whisk-broom. Its dark, deep- 

 furrowed bark smoothes out 

 and becomes light gray on the 

 larger limbs, while the spray 

 is purplish, a color given it by 

 the winter buds. These buds 

 are sharp-pointed and long. 

 In Febniary, their covering of 

 scales shows premonitions of 

 spring by enlarging, and as if 

 due to the soft influence, they 

 become downy, and take on a 

 sunshine color before they are 

 pushed off by the leaves. The 

 leaves and the blossoms appear 

 together. The leaves are at 

 first, yellowish, downy and 

 drooping, thus shunning the 

 too hot sun and the violent pelting rains and fierce spring winds. The 

 flowers appear in tassellike clusters, each downy drooping thread of the tassel 

 bearing at its tip a five-lobed calyx, which may hold seven or eight long, 



Sugar maple leave;.. 



A foretaste. 



Photo by Veme Morton 



