212 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



blend with the normal green of the leafy surface. 

 Along the course of the veins and veinlets the 

 green retains its darker hue darker, no doubt, in 

 appearance, by contrast with the suffusing yellow. 

 This colour (which ultimately becomes the final 

 hue of the Lime) like spots of subdued sunlight, 

 commences in the spaces each in form like the 

 figure of a rough parallelogram lying between 

 the veinlets which traverse the leafy surface 

 inside the lines of the principal veins that branch 

 from the mid- stem of the leaf. Here and there 

 are blotches of withered tissue dead brown in 

 colour, and these contrast effectively with the 

 yellow and green of the leaf. 



As decay advances the colouring is intensified. 

 The spots of brown increase in size and in 

 number. The yellow merges from an indistinct 

 hue into concentrated and independent blotches 

 and patches of colour which, in conjunction with 

 the darker brown, are picturesquely disposed over 

 the surface of the leaf sometimes occurring upon 

 the margin at the sides, apex or base and 

 sometimes in mid-leaf. At times the yellow 

 blotches occur independently of the brown ones. 



