Unfallen Leaves
Someone recorded the other day that he accidentally scorched an apple- tree with a garden bonfire, with the strange result that the scorched boughs presently produced a crop of flowers. Now I committed the same sin. The fire grew so fierce that I could not approach it on the leeward side, and the nearer boughs of a Bramley's Seedling suffered. The leaves withered and went brown ; but today they are the only leaves that still hang on the tree. This result is a telling bit of negative evidence that leaves do not fall from reason of decay, but are forced off by a seasonal act of energy. If in any way you interfere with the vitality of the tree, this beneficent act (which is part and parcel of the preparation for next spring) is prevented. It is for this reason that a heavily pruned beech, or even hornbeam hedge, keeps its old leaves much longer than the freely growing tree. The carefully plugged scars left, when the leaves depart, are evidence enough that the fall was an act of energy.
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