The wood affected shrivels up and becomes reduced after a time to a fine brown powder.
As sea-nymphs, they represent the treacherous calm of ocean, which conceals destruction beneath its smiling surface; or they signify the enervating influence of the hot wind (compare the name Sirius), which shrivels up the fresh young life of vegetation.
Prosperity requires civil liberties, prosperity thrives under lower taxes, and prosperity shrivels as wars disrupt the free flow of labor and capital.
When they 're young and tender they 're vulnerable to slugs and snails which rasp away at the stem until the whole plant shrivels.
After flowering it shrivels up and becomes a withered twisted mass, like so many bits of string.