LEAVES IN WINTER QUARTERS. 1 6/ 



starch and other plant food, stout and fleshy with 

 excessive feeding, and, like the aerial branches, 

 produce buds, ready to wake from their sleep at 

 the earliest call of the vernal sun. 



How quickly the cat-tails, sweet-flags, and 

 flower-de-luces, by the streams and swamps, will 

 respond to the south-west winds, and wave from 

 their hidden arms millions of sword-like leaves ! 

 In the rich woodlands, the Solomon's -seals, Jack- 

 in-the-pulpits, and wake-robins are prompt to 

 accept the first invitation of the season, and give 

 discourse to the attentive rambler. " Behold the 

 lilies and arums of the field and wood, how 

 we grow!" The subterranean branches of such 

 kinds of plants are often mistaken for the roots ; 

 but if one examine them closely, he will soon dis- 

 cover that the real roots are often disposed along 

 their sides. The stems of certain species do not 

 attain a great length, for after a time, the older 

 parts die away nearly as fast as the newer, bud- 

 ding end grows. But in places where the cat-tails 

 are, in asparagus beds, or in couch-grass plats, the 

 soil is bound through and through with a net-work 

 of string and rope-like shoots, yearly sending forth 

 leaves above, and small, fibrous roots below. 



It is nearly like making a rapid journey two or 

 three degrees southward, to walk from the bleak 

 northern side of this hill to its southern, sunny 

 slope. Here already are peeping out of the crev- 



