26 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



sensibly, through many changing stages, into the 

 deep green of its summer hue. But insensible as 

 is the passage from one stage to another the con- 

 trast between the earliest and the latest summer 

 shade is very marked and striking. 



It is the varieties of hue and colour on the 

 same leaf that give the striking character to 

 autumnal foliage so apparent when it is closely 

 examined. The effect is doubtless due to the 

 manifestations of the preliminary stages of decay ; 

 and yet it is not strictly decay, as will be pre- 

 sently shown, which produces the picturesque 

 changes of colour in the early stages of what is 

 called leaf discolouration. But to whatever cause 

 the change is due, the effect is often singularly 

 beautiful. The normal, or what has previously 

 been the uniform, green is lightened here and 

 there perhaps by varying shades of the same 

 colour, and contrasted in other places by distinct 

 patches or spots, or it may be lines, of entirely 

 different colour yellow, red, or purple. 



We have said that the peculiar colour markings 

 of autumnal leaves, though indicative of approach- 

 ing decay, are not, strictly speaking, what is 



