150 SUMMER WOOD-SCENERY. 



But the flowers are far from being conspicuous. The 

 bright-colored species are not sufficiently profuse to modify 

 a general view of the landscape. Indeed, the uniformly 

 dark shade of green pervading every scene after midsum- 

 mer is not relieved until near the end of August, when 

 the golden-rods appear and diffuse a yellow lambent hue 

 over the borders of fields and brooksides, multiplying day 

 by day until their colors are universal. The golden-rods 

 are indeed the harbingers of " yellow autumn." Their 

 hues are the dawning of that splendor which from this 

 period gradually overspreads the face of nature. 



In a summer forest scene, the evergreen woods are the 

 principal enliveners of its monotony. Even the dingy 

 hues of the juniper and cypress become by position the 

 beautifiers of the landscape, acting as a foil to the 

 deciduous trees, and causing .their verdure to be more 

 striking. The homely pitch-pine always pleasantly modi- 

 fies the drowsy effect of a deciduous wood, as the monot- 

 ony of sweet music is enlivened by occasional interludes 

 of harsh, if not discordant strains. Such is the effect of 

 scattered groups of evergreens. The sameness of summer 

 forest scenery cannot be as great as I have described it, 

 if there be a goodly share of coniferous trees. Few forest 

 scenes are more striking than a deciduous wood in July, 

 all green and lustrous in the sunshine of noonday, with 

 frequent groups of white pine towering above the general 

 level, and spreading out their summits of dark green 

 foliage like natives of another clime. Imagine, on the 

 other hand, the beauty and effulgence of a little grove of 

 white birches and tremulous poplars with their white 

 and shining branches and trunks, their fluttering leaves, 

 and their airy spray, standing on an elevation that over- 

 looks a gloomy swamp of pine and cypress. 



