April — Young Leaves of Horse-chestnut. 1 1 7 



to describe. In winter you see the full delicacy of the 

 sprays that the lightest foliage hides, and in early spring 

 this tree clothes itself, next after the willow, with tiny 

 triangular leaves, inexpressibly light in the mass, so that 

 from a distance they have the effect of a green mist 

 rather than any thing more material. When the tree is 

 isolated sufficiently to come against the sky, you may 

 see one of the prettiest sights in Nature, the pure deep 

 azure of heaven with the silvery white and fresh green of 

 the birch in opposition. And yet it is not a crude green, 

 for there is a great deal of warm red in it, which gives 

 one of those precious tertiaries that all true colorists 

 value. 



No young leaves are more interesting than those of 

 the horse-chestnut, which every lover of Nature who 

 passes the spring in the country must have watched 

 daily in April, if the tree happened to grow within a 

 little distance of his residence. When they get fairly 

 out of the cotton, in which they have been so snugly 

 protected against the severities of the early season, they 

 first hang straight down in the most languid manner, 

 and it is only after many days that they begin to spread 

 themselves in the air like the fingers of an extended 

 hand. No leaf but that of the beech looks newer than 

 the young horse-chestnut. There is a great difference 

 amongst trees in this respect, for some young leaves 

 have a very old look indeed, and might be taken by a 

 half -observant person for remnants of the later year; 

 but when the horse-chestnut leaf is young, it has that 

 air of newness which is seen in human work that has 



