22 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



representations of autumnal leaves have never, 

 to the Author's knowledge, been attempted in 

 books, and even the subject itself has not been 

 dealt with except in verse and in a fragmentary 

 way in prose. 



But it is full of suggestiveness and beauty, and 

 it has long been the Author's desire to endeavour 

 to give especial prominence to it. How few 

 people take the trouble to study in detail the 

 exquisite conformations of leaves ! The fact that 

 the summer leaf is green and the autumnal leaf 

 is yellow, or red, or orange, is the only fact of 

 which especial cognizance is taken. The pro- 

 minent and conspicuous circumstances of form or 

 colour being roughly noted, the subject is dis- 

 missed from sight and from mind. It was in the 

 endeavour to increase the popular appreciation of 

 the beautiful forms of leaves that the Author 

 determined upon the especial character of the 

 coloured illustrations of ' OUR WOODLAND TKEES/ 

 In these it was attempted for the first time, he 

 believes, in the history of colour printing to 

 give a careful representation of the characteristic 

 venation of each leaf. The outlines of form were 



