FASHIONABLE TREES 51 



the landscape, spring may be said to have come to 

 stay and the trees exhibit their seasonal wardrobe 

 complete. The green specks of brightness which 

 flecked the dark brown branches of the elm have 

 become gorgeous curtains of full-grown leaves. 

 The horse-chestnut shows lusty green leaf shoots 

 and the larch has clothed itself from those first mod- 

 est effulgences which looked like moss. Even the 

 conifers have thrown out fresh yellow-green leaves 

 on the tips of their blue-green branches. The pink 

 boughs of the redbud have put on green, and the 

 dogwood has dressed itself in rough grey leaves. 

 All these are really summer outfits, as the trees 

 wear them right up until the end of September. 

 The colour darkens in tone, but it still remains a re- 

 freshing green, a god-send to heat-stricken man. 



The mountain ash, 



Decked with autumnal berries that outshine 

 Spring's richest blossoms, yields a splendid show 

 Amid the leafy woods. 



WORDSWORTH. 



So the fall of the year approaches the time 

 when the trees become futuristic in thought, and 

 nature, mixing her pigments with a master hand, 

 creates colour schemes which no human brush can 

 simulate. Matter-of-fact chemists tell us that the 

 wizardry of autumn is due to the breaking up of 



