ASH. 197 



a uniform brightness which pervades the entire 

 leaf and, deepening, leads on to the final yellow 

 that immediately precedes the fall. But at other 

 times and this is its most striking ar;d beautiful 

 appearance a bright hue, as from a ray of sun- 

 shine, falls upon the bases of two or three leaflets, 

 bathing, so to speak, with golden light, the whole, 

 or nearly the whole, of one of them and extending, 

 but with less of intensity, and with a gradually 

 diminishing area, upon the others, the glow of 

 light finally at the leaflet last affected merging 

 almost insensibly into the normal green. Occa- 

 sionally a broad area of yellow is tinged at its 

 margin with red, and orange spots, and splashes of 

 dark purplish red are not unfrequently spread 

 along the margins or over the whole surface of 

 the leaf. Even when the brown, instead of the 

 yellow, hue prevails the approach of the autumn 

 tinting is not unfrequently well worthy of close 

 examination, for the discolouration advances in 

 spots, splashes, or bands which, before it has 

 spread so as to cover the whole leaf, contrasts 

 strikingly with the still existing green. As with 



