THE SEAL BUTCHERY. 
171 
young are left on the islands, and they are taken when asleep in the water. The 
requirement that they shall be killed with spears and not guns permits the 
destruction to go on so quietly that the animals near those killed are not dis- 
turbed ; whereas it is urged that if guns were used the report wouhl awaken them 
and many more would escape than under the present system. It is, therefore, 
desired to secure a reversal of the regulation made by the Paris tribunal, which all 
along has worked in the opposite direction from the one intended. The reversal 
would permit the use of guns and prohibit any great use of spears, if any. These 
proposed regulations constitute a practical remedy which might soon be in opera- 
tion if the nations concerned could agree. 
Joseph Coi.i.i.nson. 
THE GROWTH OF A LEAF-BUD. 
Leatherwood is one of the handsomest of our moun- 
tain forest trees; it belongs to the Saxifrageae, and is 
called, in scientific parlance, Eucryphia Billardieri. Al- 
though it has not the elegant tapering form of the 
sassafras {Atherosperma moscJiaia), nor the bright glossy leaf which 
renders that tree so conspicuous, yet its glaucous foliage is not 
without a certain charm, and forms an effective background to 
the large white blossoms with which, in early summer, these trees 
are literally covered. To see them about November or Decem- 
ber, which is the beginning of our fine weather in the mountains, 
dotted about the hill-sides among the sombre, dark green 
“myrtles” (Fagus Ctinninghami), forming columns of white, 
seventy or eighty feet high, the foliage being scarcely visible, 
is one of those nature-pictures which dwell for ever in the 
memory. 
The glaucous character of the foliage is partly brought about 
by the dull, one might almost call it neutral, tint of the leaves, 
partly by the thin layer of gum peculiar to the Leatherwood, 
with which each leaf is covered on the upper surface. This gum 
is a provision for keeping out the cold rain and frost and snow 
which prevail in these regions for a great part of the year. 
Every leaf-bud is covered with a knob of it, which keeps all 
snug below until the increasing warmth of the season softens it, 
and enables the young leaves to push through. Then begins a 
struggle ; the pair of leaves is still held tightly together by the 
mucilage, each leaf being still rolled up, and, as the impulse to 
push out and grow comes to them in the sap, they try hard to 
pull themselves free and unroll. That this is a work of time, 
and that the gum holds tenaciously until the weather is warm 
enough to allow the tender young leaves to be exposed without 
danger, the following brief notes will show. The accompanying 
rough outlines serve to illustrate the pushing of the rolled-up 
leaves through the knob of gum, and the gradual pulling apart 
as the warmth of the sun softens the adhesive substance which 
binds them. 
