120 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



Maidenhair Spleerrwort. Amidst the mass of 

 greenery, conspicuous amongst which is the 

 foliage of Maple and Briar, the Red Robin is 

 blushing deeply and the leaves of the Meadow 

 Cranesbill are flushing brilliantly with their 

 autumnal colouring. Our road now gets steeper. 

 It is no longer hedges that rise on each side of us 

 but steeply-sloping embankments forming the 

 boundaries of the road where the latter has been 

 cut through the hillside embankments on which 

 the Brake and Male Fern have room to gracefully 

 outspread their beautiful fronds, mingled with 

 which, here and there, are those of the handsome 

 Broad Buckler Fern. On the left-hand side of our 

 way the steeply-sloping embankment is covered 

 with a thickly-matted mass of Brake, Briar and 

 Hazel, whilst Apple trees growing in the ground 

 above peep out over the hedgebank greenery 

 showing abundantly-crowded, golden fruit flushed 

 with crimson, and mossed and lichen-covered 

 branches. From the hedge mass, too, the Maple 

 shows a tinge of orange red, the Hazel is yellow- 

 ing and embrowning, and the Dogwood exhibits 

 a profusion of clustering purple. Oak sapling 



