Leaf-absorption

Abstract

A FEW weeks ago I threw some cuttings of the common Privet (Ligustrum vulgare) on the borders in the garden. Of these cuttings some perished, while the remainder were drawn into the soil by the worms, some with the cut end downwards, some only by a single leaf, leaving all the rest of the cutting en plein air. These latter are, at the end of this time, all as fresh and healthily green as they were at the moment of cutting off the parent plant, notwithstanding the very hot weather we have recently experienced. It seems to me that this is a clear proof that the rôle of leaves is to absorb as well as evaporate, a point on which much doubt has often been expressed.