226 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



centre of the long, handsome, tongue-shaped leaf 

 to the sharply-pointed apex. From it, on either 

 side, run almost equally prominent secondary 

 veins, sometimes in opposite pairs but more fre- 

 quently in alternation. Each of these branching 

 side veins runs by a gentle, upward curve, to 

 one of the points of the deep and acute serratures 

 by which both sides of the leaf are bordered. The 

 points of these serratures, which are ordinarily 

 arranged with beautiful regularity along the 

 margins commencing usually at about an inch 

 from the base of the leaf are so acute as to 

 resemble bristles. The branching side veins run 

 parallel with each other being only occasionally 

 forked to the very apices of the bristling points 

 of the serratures, and the minute veinlets, that 

 elaborately intersect the leafy tissue lying in the 

 intervening spaces, can only be seen by close 

 examination of the surface or when the leaf is held 

 against a strong light. 



The advance of autumnal colouring upon the 

 green, glossy tissue of the Chestnut leaf makes 

 contrasts of great variety, and beauty. Sometimes 

 it commences at the edges of the leaf in such a way 



