58 FOLIAGE. 



birchen grove, in which the small thin foliage and airy 

 spray of the trees permit the sun and shade to meet and 

 mingle playfully around my path. 



The lumpish character of the foliage of large-leaved 

 trees, like the tulip and magnolia, is perceptible at al- 

 most any distance, causing them to appear like green 

 blots upon the landscape. The small-leaved trees, on the 

 contrary, exhibit a certain neatness of spray, which im- 

 mediately affects the eye with a sensation of beauty. 

 This appearance is beautifully exemplified in the beech. 

 Some of the large-leaved trees, however, possess a kind 

 of formality that renders them very attractive. Such is 

 the horse-chestnut, that spreads out its broad palmate 

 leaves with their tips slightly drooping, like so many 

 parasols held one above another. People have learned to 

 admire large and broad foliage from descriptions of the 

 immense size of tropical leaves, and by associating them 

 with the romance of a voluptuous climate. The long 

 pennon-like leaves of the banana and the wide fronds 

 of the fan palm naturally excite the imagination of the 

 inhabitant of the North. 



The form of leaves, no less than their size, has a 

 great share in their general effects, even when viewed 

 from a distant point, where their outlines cannot be dis- 

 criminated. If they are deeply cleft, like those of the 

 river maple and the scarlet oak, or finely pinnate, like 

 those of the locust and the mountain ash, we perceive a 

 light, feathery appearance in the whole mass, before we are 

 near enough to distinguish the form of individual leaves. 

 This quality is apparent in the honey locust as far off as the 

 tree can be identified. Hence the forms of leaves do not 

 produce all their effect upon a near view ; but in orna- 

 mental designs in the fine arts the delineations of foliage 

 alone are considered. In the tracery of fenestral archi- 

 tecture, leaves are a very general and favorite ornament ; 



