That assimilatory urge is present in every activity from coarse ingestion as food to the moral metabolism of the hermit-saint who would influence others to do as he.
"The Glands Regulating Personality"
Louis Berman, M.D.
In the case of a tree the case is different, and since most large trees in full foliage have far more assimilatory surface than is actually necessary for immediate needs, a considerable tax can be paid to parasites or predatory insects before the stores suffer perceptibly.
"Disease in Plants"
H. Marshall Ward
In many cases such epicormic shoots are stimulated to grow out by suddenly exposing an old tree to more favourable conditions of root-action and assimilatory activity, owing to the felling of competing trees which previously hemmed it in from light and air, and restricted the spread and action of its roots in the soil.
"Disease in Plants"
H. Marshall Ward