Trees 145 



flowered shrubs; but it must be confessed that after their bloom 

 is past, his old objection to this little dark-leaved tree, so uni 

 versally planted, holds good. 



The brilliant autumnal colouring of trees is as the gift of 

 genius in families one can never be certain where it will appear. 

 In a long row of sugar maples at the nursery you may search in 

 vain for one of such glorious colouring as any Vermont farmer may 

 have beside his door. A red oak tree that is marvellously rich one 

 year may disappoint us sadly the next, when the glistening leaves 

 of the scarlet oak dazzle one with the lambent brightness of flame. 

 Whoever revels in colour, as even the most primitive savage does 

 and who, indeed, does not? will not forget to include in his 

 planting list some trees for the sake of their greater glory after 

 the flowers are gone. The pepperidge tree and star-leaved sweet 

 gum would be desirable if for no other merit than their gorgeous 

 autumnal tints. One is grateful to the rugged, sturdy oaks that 

 hold their rich mahogany red and russet leaves late into the new 

 year sometimes until the new growth pushes them off. Although 

 the larch, a less vigorous relative of the pines and firs, does not 

 retain its needle-like leaves after they turn yellow in autumn, 

 the feathery light green of its new growth that one touches with a 

 caress, and its delicate curving twigs, strung in winter with little 

 cones, are so effective against the sky that there are at least two 

 excellent reasons for planting it. One never fully appreciates 

 the paper whiteness of the birch, the most spirituelle of all trees, 

 until it is seen without a leaf to cover it, chaste and purely lovely 

 against a background of evergreens. When is the beech tree most 

 beautiful when its fresh green, crinkled and varnished leaves 

 burst from their brown pointed sheaths in May, or when one looks 

 up through the shining yellow of their gold to a clear, deep-blue 



