Evening star., 1936-10-23

the family covertly sneer at them, makes
for unhappy gardening. The point lies
not in the fact that one does the work
that almost always Is the case-but that
the others cannot keep their mouths shut.
II they do not want to garden that is
their business. but they should at least
enter into the spirit Of the thing and
permit the real gardener, Of whom every
garden has at least one, do the work.
Proper care Of q small place demands
q great deal Of time and often other
members of the family resent this, and in
sly ways take 1t out" on the working
member, or gardener, most honorable
and ancient title. The way to overcome
this handicap is simple, but must come
from the others. They must enter into
the spirit of the work and at least give 1t
q theoretical backing and applause. Most
often they can achieve this state Of mind
by proper understanding of what is being
done. They may regard themselves as
the reading members Of the garden crew;
some must work and some must read,
and occasionally both reader and doer
Is combined. When this happens one
finds q gardener, indeed.
many millions of samples within the next
few weeks, need not be bright necessarily
to be interesting.
We picked up the other morning
splendid specimen Of pin oak leaf, fallen
in the suburban area.
It was still green in most part, but
mixed with enough yellow to give a most
pleasing effect.
The withdrawal Of the green, as repre-
sented by the yellow, marked the end Of
the chlorophyl, and the change into other
substances, lie, the compounds commonly
left in drying vegetable matter, according
to the species. 1t is from such dried ma
terial that the world gets its brews, such
at tea. as commonly called; many Of its
medicines and perfumes.
The chemical analysis Of fallen leaf
Is intricate. 1t would demand an expert,
but the casual beholder at least may
recognize the possibilities of analysis and
the plain fact that the leaf before him is
not Just thing Of color only, but really
a most complex mixture, ranging from
tannin, common ingredient of most
leafy matter, to obscure principles which
science as yet has not been able to isolate.
Thus many herbs which have been
used over the centuries are being shown
today to contain ingredients with gen.
uine scientific adaptability to the diseases
for which they were used, although the
users could not put their finger on what
made the herb do the work they said it
did for them.
Nah Huang, for instance, was used by
the Chinese for centuries without any
one having a rational understanding Of
it, but science today iSolates ephedrin
and admits that the old fellows were
right in their use of it.
y +
A leaf in the garden is to be looked
upon as something which, though dead,
has come from the great Laboratories of
Nature.
1t is not just simple fat and curl
ously indented piece of material. but
marvellous complex of chemical ingredi-
ents which may or may not be Of further
use in the world.
There is a huge loss in Autumn leaves
in bonf1res which do nobody any good.
Much of this material might be made
into humuS, if more persons understood
the nature Of the changes and the
requisite chemicals to be added to hasten
them.
Sweep them up, of course, in season,
but at the same time stop long enough
to examine them and wonder at the
changes which have come over them
after their long period in furthering the
life Of the tree, shrub or plant of which
they were such necessary part.