Ij Qhap. 35.] TKEES WITH LEAYES OF VABIOUS COLOUES. 3/5 
tioned — a list which it would be tedious to enumerate — lose 
their leaves, and it has been observed that the leaf does not 
dry up and wither unless it is thin, broad, and soft ; while, 
I on the other hand, the leaves that do not fall are those which 
I are fleshy, thick, and narrow."*^ It is an erroneous theory 
that the leaf does not fall in those trees the juices of which 
are more unctuous than the rest ; for who could make out that 
such is the case with the holm-oak, for instance ? Timaeus, 
the mathematician, is of opinion that the leaves fall while the 
sun is passing through the sign of Scorpio, being acted upon by 
the influences of that luminary, and a certain venom which 
exists in the atmosphere : but then we have a right to wonder 
how it is that, the same reasons existing, the same influence 
is not exercised equally on all. 
The leaves of most trees fall in autumn, but in some at a 
later period, remaining on the tree till the approach of winter, 
it making no difference whether they have germinated at an 
earlier period or a later, seeing that some that are the very 
first to bud are among the last to lose their leaves — the 
almond, the ash, and the elder, for instance : the mulberry, 
on the other hand, buds the last of all, and loses its leaves 
among the very first. The soil, too, exercises a very consi- 
derable influence in this respect: the leaves falling sooner 
where it is dry and thin, and more particularly when the tree 
is old : indeed, there are many trees that lose them before the 
fruit is ripe, as in the case of the late fig, for instance, and the 
winter pear : on the pomegranate, too, the fruit, w^hen ripe, 
beholds nothing but the trunk of the parent tree. And not 
even upon those trees which always retain their foliage do the 
same leaves always remain, for as others shoot up beneath them, 
the old leaves gradually wither away : this takes place about 
the solstices more particularly. 
CHAP. 35. TKEES WHICH HAVE LEAVES OE VAKIOTJS COLOUES J 
TREES WITH LEAVES OE VAEIOUS SHAPES. THKEE VAKIETIES 
OE THE POPLAR. 
The leaves continue the same upon every species of tree. 
This last assertion, Fee says, is far from true, in relation to the coni- 
ferous trees. 
