214 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



TREES OPENING THEIR LEAVES AT DIFFER- 

 ENT DATES. 



With trees the time of budding and leaf-expanding, of 

 course, depends very much on the species ; some, as the 

 chestnut and willow, being much earlier than others, as 

 the beech and oak. This every one is aware of; but it is 

 not so generally known that trees of the same species put 

 forth their leaves at irregular periods, with days, some- 

 times weeks, between, even when growing side by side 

 in the same copse or wood. Just now I have an instance 

 of this before my eyes, in a hanging wood which forms a 

 background to my house. The trees in it are for the 

 most part oaks ; and, strange to tell, some of these are 

 now (April 17th) nearly in full leaf, while others show 

 bare branches, or only with inconspicuous buds on them. 

 I am inclined to think that these earlier leafers are the 

 ones which last year suffered devastation by the cater- 

 pillars, and had to put on a second dress. Judging by 

 their place in the wood it would seem so ; but, unfortu- 

 nately, I made no exact note of this, and about such a 

 matter memory is not to be relied upon. 



THE PLOW OP SAP IN TREES. 



Glancing into a novel I chanced lately to lay hands on 

 — " Vixen," by Mias Braddon — I was rather amused at 

 reading as follows : — 



"The moon had risen, a late October moon. . . . 

 Here and there a sturdy young oak, that had lately 

 been stripped of its bark, lay among the fern like the 

 naked corpse of a giant. Here and there a tree had 



