NATURE WITH CLOSED DOORS 
known to me might the swelling bud push off the old 
leaf. In the sumach and button-ball or plane-tree 
the new bud is formed immediately under the base 
of the old leaf-stalk, by which it is covered like a 
cap. Examine the fallen leaves of these trees, and 
you will see the cavity in the base of each where the 
new bud was cradled. Why the beech, the oak, and 
the hickory cling to their old leaves is not clear. It 
may be simply a slovenly trait — inability to finish 
and have done with a thing — a fault of so many 
people. Some oaks and beeches appear to lack 
decision of character. It requires strength and vital- 
ity, it seems, simply to let go. Kill a tree suddenly, 
and the leaves wither upon the branches. How 
neatly and thoroughly the maples, the ashes, the 
birches, the elm clean up. They are tidy, energetic 
trees, and can turn over a new leaf without hesitation. 
A correspondent, writing to me from one of the 
colleges, suggests that our spring really begins in 
December, because the “annual cycle of vegetable 
life” seems to start then. At this time he finds that 
many of our wild flowers — the bloodroot, hepatica, 
columbine, shinleaf, maidenhair fern, etc. -— have 
all made quite a start toward the next season’s 
growth, in some cases the new shoot being an inch 
high. But the real start of the next season’s vege- 
table life in this sense is long before December. It 
is in late summer, when the new buds are formed 
on the trees. Nature looks ahead, and makes ready 
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