394 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
usual custom of cork-cells, but rounded and, as it 
were, flung together, like stones tipped out of a 
wheelbarrow. Between them lie many little 
chinks and spaces, and by way of these the air 
gets into the wood, and the moist breath exhaled 
by the living tissue of the tree reaches the out- 
side air. But as summer wanes, the trees fit them- 
selves for their approaching slumber by an action 
which might be compared to that of the Hindoo 
fakir of Eastern wonder-lore, who, before entering 
his death-like trance, stops his nostrils with plugs 
of wax. 
For at the end of the growing season a close 
layer of cork forms over the whole orifice of each 
lenticel, and seals up the tree. 
So the breathing away of the tree’s moisture is 
checked, as it has need to be, at this season, for 
now no active little root-hairs are at work down 
below, sucking up water from the ground. And 
also the little seals of cork help to protect the 
tissues of the tree against sharp and sudden frost. 
At the return of spring a number of new cork- 
cells will be formed under the seal which Nature 
has placed upon the lenticel. These will be a 
light, loose mass, like that which fills the lenticels 
in summer, and by their vigorous growth they will 
