LIME. 213 



At other times they are merged into them ; and 

 sometimes this merging is very picturesque, as 

 when a patch of brown occurs in the centre of a 

 patch of yellow the dead surrounded by the 

 dying portion. Occasionally a mottled appearance 

 is occasioned by the blending of brown, yellow 

 and green in alternate blotches, and then the 

 effect, so far as the individual leaf is concerned, is 

 strikingly picturesque. 



But the assemblage of leaves on a Lime tree, in 

 this the season of its early autumnal colouring, 

 produces an effect to which the individual markings 

 of each leaf contribute. If on different trees only 

 were shown the differences of colouring the effects 

 of contrast would only be manifest in the grove. 

 But it is not so. An individual tree will often- 

 times show nearly all the stages of decay, and all 

 the gradations of colouring. Why the leafy cover- 

 ing of one branch should give symptoms of decline 

 before that of another on the same tree it would 

 be extremely difficult to explain : and why parti- 

 cular twigs on the same branch or particular 

 leaves on the same twig should proclaim the 

 advance of Autumn some time before their fellows 



