NOVEMBER 119 



to rival. When one has perceptions open to these impressions, 

 the mere enclosed garden is at this season rather common- 

 place.' 



Though I welcome these autumnal beauties, and 

 claim them as parts of my garden, though outside the 

 garden fence, I do not intend in this paper to speak 

 of the beauties of autumnal foliage. But I must 

 mention a Xorth American sumach, which promises 

 to be one of the most beautiful of our autumnal 

 shrubs. This is the Rhus cotinoides, a native of 

 Alabama, in the Southern United States, and ap- 

 parently very rare there. It seems to be perfectly 

 hardy, is deciduous, and forms a low bush. In the 

 spring the leaves are a delicate rose colour, but early 

 in autumn they become an intense crimson, richer 

 than any Japanese maple, and remain on the bush in 

 all their brilliancy for a long time. I have not seen 

 the flowers, but they are small and inconspicuous, and 

 I believe it has not yet flowered in England. 



There is plenty of work in the garden in November, 

 and in its way very interesting, the more so because 

 it is unlike the work of any other month. "We may 

 lament the loss of leaves on the trees, and the change 

 in them from thick masses of green to bare skeletons. 

 But these skeletons have a beauty of their own, and 

 to the botanist and student of tree-life they are a 



