STUMPS THAT GROW 
facture its food. A certain amount of temporary growth 
is possible from plant food that may be stored up in 
stem or roots. Continued growth, however, must be 
based on leaves that manufacture plant food. These 
stumps, the naturalists argued, must be tied in some way 
to green leaves for the production of their food. 
The passing of time presented an explanation of this 
queer situation. Fortunately the explanation was set up 
by the side of Vernal Falls trail, where all might see. The 
rain washed away the soil about one of these living 
stumps. There, beneath the ground, it was shown that 
a root from the strangely growing stump had grown to¬ 
gether with a root of a tree that still lived. The one had 
been grafted to the other. Thus it was made possible for 
the stump of the fallen tree to keep alive by drawing a 
food supply from the root of its companion tree that still 
got a food supply from its leaves. Had this stump been 
the sort that puts forth sprouts, there would never have 
been any occasion to search for its secret. Being a Doug¬ 
las fir stump, it could not send up sprouts and so by its 
strange evidences of life presented a mystery to be solved. 
133 
