ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 47 



LEAVES, AND WHAT THEY DO. 



The leaves of the trees afford an almost endless study and a constant 

 delight. Frail, fragile things, easily crumpled and torn, they are won- 

 derful in their delicate structure, and more wonderful if possible on 

 account of the work which they perform. 



They are among the most beautiful things offered to our sight. Some 

 one has well said that the beauty of the world depends as much upon 

 leaves as upon flowers. We think of the bright colors of flowers and 

 are apt to forget or fail to notice the coloring of leaves. 

 But what a picture of color, beyond anything that 

 flowers can give us, is spread before our sight for 

 weeks every autumn, when the leaves ripen and take 

 on hues like those of the most gorgeous sunset skies, 



and the wide 

 landscape is 

 all aglow with 

 them. A wise 

 observer has 

 called atten- 

 tion also to 

 the fact that 

 the various 

 kinds of trees 

 have in the 

 early spring- 

 time also, 

 only in a more 



subdued tone, the same colors which they put on in the autumn. If 

 we notice the leaves carefully, we shall see that there is a great variety 

 of color in them all through the year. While the prevailing color, or 

 the body color, so to speak, is green, and the general tone of the trees 

 seen in masses is green the most pleasant of all colors to be abidingly 

 before the sight this is prevented from becoming dull or somber because 

 it comprises almost innumerable tints and shades of the selfsame color, 

 while other distinct colors are mingled with it to such an extent as to 

 enliven the whole foliage mass. Spots of yellow, of red, of white, and 

 of intermediate colors are dashed upon the green leaves or become the 

 characteristic hues of entire trees, and so there is brought about an 

 endless variety and beauty of color. 



Then there is the beauty of form, size, position, and arrangement. 

 Of the one hundred and fifty thousand or more known species of trees 

 the leaves of each have a characteristic shape. The leaves of no two 

 species are precisely alike in form. More than this is also true. No 

 two leaves upon the same tree are in this respect alike. While there is 



