42 VERNAL WOOD-SCENERY. 



even the dull sprays of the apple-tree, the cherry, the 

 birch, and the lime, are dimly flushed with the hue of 

 reviving life. As many of the forest trees display their 

 principal beauty of form while in their denuded state, 

 this seasonal polish invites our attention, particularly to 

 those with long and graceful branches. 



The swelling buds, which are for the most part very 

 highly colored, whether they enclose a leaf or a flower, 

 add greatly to this luminous appearance of the trees. 

 These masses of innumerable buds, though mere colored 

 dots, produce in the aggregate a great amount of color. 

 This is apparent in all trees as soon as they are affected 

 by the warmth of the season. But as vegetation comes 

 forward, the flower-buds grow brighter and brighter, till 

 they are fully expanded, some in the form of fringes, 

 as in most of our forest trees, others, as in our orchard 

 trees, in clusters of perfect flowers. This drapery of 

 fringe, seldom highly colored, but containing a great 

 variety of pale shades, that hangs from the oak, the birch, 

 the willow, the alder, and the poplar, is sufficient to 

 characterize the whole forest, and forms one of the most 

 remarkable phenomena of vernal wood- scenery. 



It is generally supposed that the beauties of tinted 

 foliage are peculiar to autumn. I do not recollect any 

 landscape painting in which the tints of spring are rep- 

 resented. All the paintings of colored leaves are 

 sketches of autumnal scenes, or of the warm glow of 

 sunlight. Yet there is hardly a tree or a shrub that does 

 not display in its opening leaves a pale shade of the same 

 tints that distinguish the species or the individual tree 

 at the time of the faU of the leaf. The birch and the 

 poplar imitate in their half-developed leaves the yellow 

 tints of their autumnal dress, forming a yellow shade of 

 green. The tender leaves of the maple and of the dif- 

 ferent oaks are all greenish purple of different shades. 



