194 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



over the rest of the surface. Other stages may- 

 be noticed showing the greater or less advance of 

 the yellow and the retiring of the green. The 

 effect is often very striking when bands or 

 splashes of uniform yellow occupy the centre or 

 one side of the leaf, all the rest of the surface 

 being of the normal shade of green. Now and 

 then there are three colours in the Elm leaf, the 

 ordinary green and yellow being varied by red, 

 which spreads sometimes in spots small or large 

 and sometimes in splashes or bands. It not uii- 

 frequently happens that one twig within arm's 

 reach will contain more than a score of variations 

 from the uniform green or yellow which forms 

 the extreme of colouring. 



Very graceful is the foliage of the Ash by reason 

 of its pinnate character ; for what is strictly a leaf 

 subdivided into leaflets looks like pairs of leaves 

 set on the stem on opposite sides and ended by a 

 single leaf. It is this symmetrical arrangement 

 and the individual smallness of the Ash leaflets 

 that give the drooping, graceful and pretty 

 character to the Ash foliage. There are generally 



