Evening star., 1952-03-30

Il slightest doubt about it. The
proof did not lie in any ones read
ing of the thermometer. It was a
feeling somewhere halfway be-
tween anticipation and fulfillment
not quite thirst and not quite
intoxication, yet little Of both.
There was an unmistakable soft
ness in the atmosphere; but there
was tension, too. People moved
slower and breathed faster. It
made them feel at once somewhat
numb and more than somewhat
dizzy. City dwellers, who long ago
had given up trying to put their
finger on the sensation, were apt
to compare it to the one which
occasionally accompanies the first
cigarette on a fine morning. Even
as they said it, however, they
knew the comparison was absurdly
inadequate.
Oh1cially it had happened more
than a week ago. Precisely at
11:14 am. that Thursday, at the
instant of the vernal equinox, the
axis of the spinning earth stood
perpendicular to the suns rays.
The axis had not changed-in
millions of annual circuits of the
sun, earth has tilted a constant
231a degrees off the plane Of its
orbit. A week ago Thursday, the
tilt was still there. But 1t was en-
tirely a sideways inclination. The
North Pole, in other words, was as
close to the sun as the South Pole.
If the earth stood, so to speak,
straight up and down, there would
be no change of the seasons; the
season always would be the same
at any given point on the surface
of the globe. The sun would not,
in the next three months, rise
further north each day, its rays
striking us more and more directly.
There would be, in this time, no
lengthening twilight, no shortening
shadows. There would be no morn
ing to the worlds year.
It is the direction of the suns
rays which makes earth'S tempera-
ture change with the seasons; it
is not question of distance from
the sun. AS it happens, We are
3 million miles closer to the sun in
what we of northern ATTITUDES call
winter than we are in our summer.
But in winter, the suns slanting
rays must pass through more miles
of eat-absorbing atmosphere be-
fore they reach us. That is one
reason why they are colder when
they get here. Another is that in
striking the earth on q slant, their
heat is spread more thinly.
The Magic Time
AS men experience them, Of
course, seasons are not governed
by the almanac. This year, by
coincidence, the crucial day was
balmy. That Friday, the mercury
shot high and fast, and the plate
glass door of an Eleventh street shop
shattered under the strain. But
winters chill returned-and with
it, rain. The tree toads, which had
started tuning up along the banks
of Rock Creek, postponed the con-
cert's start. No one worried much
about the delay, for the stage was
not yet set. Somehow, one felt,
it was not quite time. Now, how
ever, things were different. The
time had come.
It had been coming for weeks.
Northward over the continent, like
some great warm tide, it had rolled
q steady course-15 miles day on
the fiat; 100 feet up the mountain
side every "A hours. It moved as a
flood moves, rapidly down the val
leys, slowly up the hills. Every
where it went, 1t stirred living
Things TO new lie.
In the animal world, particularly
among the human species, a few
specimens might fail to feel its
effect. Not in the plant world, how
ever. From the smallest seed to the
biggest elm, the reaction was es-
sentially the same. It began with
invisible hormones in the tips of
buds, or imbedded in seeds which
themselves contained embryonic
buds. The hormones passed the
word to cambium cells, peculiar
organisms which, in all the plant
world, are the only ones that can
truly be said to live.
A seed contains cambium cells;
so does tree. In trees they form
a microscopic layer, thinner than
the thinnest strand Of spiders
web, between the bark and the
wood. As long as this layer lives.
a tree ha When the cam
blum cells die, the tree is dead. For
these cells have a unique property
in the vegetable kingdom. They
can convert into leaves, or bark or
wood-or into more cambium cells,
as the need arises. They, in other
words, are the raw material Of
plant growth. They hold the key
to plant life.
The Awakening
The groundwork for the renewal
of this life each year is laid months