208 DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



week in June, the branches of one of these trees having 

 an eastern exposure, produced a copious second growth of 

 leaves. In October following, when the foliage generally 

 had dropped, this second growth still held its place, and 

 did not fall until the middle of November. It came a 

 month later and tarried that much longer. The same 

 phenomenon I have often noticed in connection with the 

 many oaks that abound here, and notably the broad- 

 leaved or post-oak. 



Frost, it is well known, is quite irregular in its distri- 

 bution. It needs but a slight variation in condition to 

 ward it off when all about the ground is covered as with 

 snow ; but it seems scarcely possible that a tree standing 

 alone 4n an open field should be affected upon one side 

 and not on the other, and that the branches that bear a 

 second growth of leaves should always be those that escape 

 being chilled during the first few frosty nights. The 

 leaf, it would appear, like the fruit, has a given time for 

 growth and ripening, if we may call its coloring by that 

 name ; and if the tree is in full vigor, the occurrence of 

 frosty weather does not more than hasten the process, if 

 it does that. I do not believe that it is the primary 

 cause. This is an old view, and as applicable to southern 

 New Jersey, I subscribe to it. 



During the spring of the current year I noticed that 

 trees of the same species varied exceedingly in the time 

 of coming into leaf — a difference that may be explained, 

 I suppose, by the variation in the temperature of the soil ; 

 and at this time, November, these same trees may be di- 

 vided into three classes: leafless, with coloi'cd foliage, 

 and those with curled but still green leaves. The trees 

 came into leaf last April in the order named ; those now 

 bare being the earliest to bud ; those still in the leaf, the 

 latest. In particular I recall two shell-bark hickories 

 growing not two hundred yards apart, and one no more 



