254 



inasmuch as no two countries have their autumn 

 exactly alike. Therefore, as our observations must be 

 either local or vague, we shall make them as few and 

 brief as possible. 



The general appearances whicn,in our own latitude, 

 mark this season, and distinguish it from other seasons, 

 must be familiar to every one who has eyes. The short- 

 ening of the day much faster than the apparent diminu- 

 tion V heat, the general transparency of the air, the 

 distance to which the view extends, and the bracing 

 effect which one feels more than at any other season: 

 these peculiarities arise from the diminished evapo- 

 ration, and that again is owing to the dry and dry- 

 ing state of vegetables, the leaves and barks of which 

 are gradually ceasing to have any action, and of 



course do not give out so much humidity, or so act 

 upon and alter the state of the air, as when they are in 

 growth. The cleared fields and the dry stubble con- 

 tribute to the same result, as they do not " steam up- 

 wards," either as when they are drying in spring, or 

 when they are supporting growth in summer. The 

 transparency of the air does not depend so much upon 

 the absence of moisture, as on the absence of evapo- 

 ration ; and the latter is, in many cases, not so much 

 owing to the want of evaporative power in the air, as 

 to the want of humidity to be evaporated. As there is 

 less living action going on upon the earth, than while 

 vegetation is in progress, the beams of the sun heat 

 it more while they fall upon it, and it cools faster after 

 they cease to fall. Thus, it approaches in a certain 

 degree to those tropical scenes which are intermediate 

 between growth and parching ; the days, too, are nearly 

 of the tropical length. Thus, dew forms more readily 

 upon the surface than at any other season ; and in 

 those places which are shielded from the direct action 

 of the sun, it continues longer ere it is dissolved. 



In districts which are a little upland, or otherwise 

 colder, fogs creep along the surfaces of the lakes and 

 the courses of the streams, and generally over moist 

 surfaces. These are more owing to the condensation of 

 moisture in the air which is cooled by these surfaces, 

 than to evaporation from the surfaces themselves ; for 

 autumnal fogs do not drain the moisture like the fogs 

 of the early season. But in cold districts they 

 continue during the night; and the late corn, the 

 leaves of potatoes, the after-math of red clover, and 

 other plants which are rather delicate, get cold just 

 before dawn, and dew forms on them, and often con- 

 geals into a sort of hoar frost, which, though gone 

 before it can be seen in white spiculae, prematurely 

 whitens the oats and other late grain, and blackens 

 and shrivels up the leaves of green plants. 



If the autumn advances dry and kindly, and with- 

 out frosts and falls of rain ('for if the first of these 

 come it is almost sure to be followed by the second), 

 as the atmosphere becomes too cold for retaining its 

 moisture, the changing leaves, as the wood ripens, 

 produce an endless variety of tints. Yellows, browns, 

 and russets, in various shades, with here and there a 

 patch of dull red, are the usual colours of our 

 European trees ; and if the tints do not come out 

 free and clear before the leaves begin to fall, it is a 

 sign that all is not well with the groves, copses, and 

 hedges ; and if the season be very untavourable, or 

 the place bleak and backward, the leaves hang dull 

 in a sort of unhealthy green, spotted with mould 

 under the epidermis, without the pleasant smell of 

 leaves that have performed their office well, and are 

 fading in a kindly manner; and these often refuse 



AUTUMN. 



to cicatrize and come off, but cling in withered 

 patches killed by the frost, till the storms of winter 

 drive them off by force. There are some, however, 

 which retain their leaves after they have ripened, and 

 faded in an apparently healthy manner into the 

 brown of inaction. The common beech, in cold and 

 elevated situations, is one of these, and it often retains 

 the old leaves till the young buds, which in the 

 beech are always rather advanced in the autumn, have 

 half expanded their leaves. On rich and warm soils, 

 where the trees attain a large size, it is not exactly 

 so, though a few tufts often cling ; and if suckers are 

 allowed to grow at the roots, the leaves adhere on 

 them after they are cut from the parent tree. In this 

 habit there is a sort of partial approach to the ever- 



. \ 1 il_ "L. * 



greens, only they retain their leaves green, though inac- 

 tive, during the winter, and do not revive into action in 

 the spring, though shed at a more advanced period of 

 the season than the discoloured leaves of the beech. 

 It is worthy of notice, that when the beech retains the 

 whole of its old leaves during winter, it also gets the 

 slow growth of the hardy evergreens, and forms 

 harder timber than when the growth is more vigorous; 

 but though harder, it is brittle, of inferior quality, and 

 rots equally soon. 



There may be exceptions, but it is a very general 

 law in the autumnal fading of the foliage of trees, that 

 those species, which, in their native habitats, are 

 exposed to the greatest vicissitudes, fade through the 

 most numerous and varied tints. American deciduous 

 trees and shrubs, till a latitude as far southward be 

 gained as that in which the deciduous cypress 

 (taxodium disticha) is prevalent, are subject to severe 

 alternations of heat and cold in the spring far more 

 so than the trees of any of those districts of Europe, 

 where deciduous ones form the chief part of the 

 forests. American trees accordingly fade through a 

 great variety and brilliancy of tints ; and as they 

 continue their varying hues for a considerable time be- 

 fore the leaves begin to fall, or even to show symptoms 

 of shrivelling and decay, they add greatly to the beauty 

 of grove and coppice" scenery during the autumnal 

 months. The shrubs of our more bleak and northern 

 districts, and those of Lapland, in both of which there 

 are contests between summer and winter, in the brief 

 time which may be called spring, have partially the 

 same habit. Trees of more southerly places, which 

 have no -frost to contend with, after the buds begin to 

 unfold, have no such rich variety of autumnal colours. 

 When they do fade ere they fall, they fade into a 

 dull and pale straw-colour, or they are spotted *fith 

 the depredations of small fungi. But many of them 

 come late, and fall with the first frost, or rather with 

 the sun after it, covering the ground with leaves still 

 green and apparently unchanged. The common 

 mulberry is a remarkable instance. It is further worthy 

 of remark, that the leaves which thus fall at once, or 

 yield to the ravages of the fungi, have their epidermis, 

 thin, tender, and without gloss, while those which 

 pass through the richer tints have it compact, and 

 generally to a considerable extent glossy. 



But the autumnal woodland, independently of its 

 scenic beauty, offers a wide field for study a field far 

 too wide for coming within the scope of a general ar- 

 ticle of moderate length, even though devoted exclu- 

 sively to the subject. Some notices respecting it may 

 be found in the particular descriptions of the groups 

 and genera of forest trees, and to them we must refer 

 the reader. 



