8 



LETTERS ON TREES. 



posing it may none of them pass the allotted three- 

 score years and ten. 



14. Just so in respect of a tree. Take an Oak at 

 mid-summer, in full leaf and in its full vigour. It is 

 neither more nor less than a collection (an aggregate 

 or corporation) of living and growing but separate and 

 distinct oak plants, the production of the current year, 

 and likewise of the dead remains of a still larger num- 

 ber of individual plants of the same kind or species, the 

 production of a series of bygone years. And of these 

 oak plants, each and every one lives only one year, 

 and attains its full growth within the year — making 

 provision in the form of buds for the evolution of 

 similar plants the following year. Further, the plants 

 of each year, shooting up in spring from the buds 

 formed by the plants of the previous year, grow para- 

 sitically on the persistent dead remains of these. Ac- 

 quiring their maturity in summer, and reaching to the 

 height of a few inches only, they pass into the state of 

 old age (the sere and yellow leaf) and eventually die 

 in autumn, save only the buds they have formed, 

 which survive the winter. And thus dying, the greater 

 part of every one of them speedily undergoes decom- 

 position, and disappears. The woody stems and roots 

 alone remain. These, although dead, escape that pro- 

 cess. Tipped with the living buds (as the ground may 

 be said to be with the acorns that have dropped), 

 they abide entire — as entire, yet as destitute of vitality 



