Defoliation synonyms

The period of defoliation varies in different countries according to the nature of their climate.

Many aphides, &c., puncture the leaves, suck out the sap, and induce va:ious local deformations, arrest of growth, pustular swellings, &c., and if numerous all the evils of defoliation may follow.

It should be remembered that a single complete defoliation of a herbaceous annual may so incapacitate the assimilation that no stores are available for seeds, tubers, &c., for another year, or at most so little that feeble plants only come up. In the case of a tree matters run somewhat differently; most large trees in full foliage have far more assimilatory surface than is immediately necessary, and if the injury is confined to a single year it may be a small event in the life of the tree, but if repeated the cambium, bud-stores and fruiting may all suffer.

Drought and consequent defoliation result in the same, and these considerations help us to understand how old-established trees in parks, &c., apparently in good general health, become stag-headed by the necrosis of their upper twigs and smaller branches: the roots have here penetrated into subsoil or other unsuitable medium, or some drainage scheme has deprived them of water, &c., and a dry summer just turns the scale.