196 LIFE STORIES OF PLANTS 
greater 1 as of leaves. The leaves make the plant | 
meee, «substance for the new and continued q 
growth. 
The bark on the trunk 1s smooth at 
first. As the sapling gets 
older the bark begins to 
crack open in long and 
irregular fissures, making 
the gray bark more promi- 
nent. If you should start 
when you are very young 
to read the life of an oak 
tree, from its beginning as 
an acorn, I am afraid you 
would never be able to 
read the whole story. By 
the time oak trees are very 
old, they have lived many 
more years than we do. 
So how shall we read the 
lite story of the oak? Read 
it in a large number of 

Fig. 237. Acorn 
trees, from young ones to germinated in 
water. 

FIG. 236, See ° 
the tree from which middle-aged ONeS and very 
this wood was taken? 
old oaks. If you happen to find an oak 
tree which has been cut down, you know you can tell 
its age within a few years by counting the annual rings. 
