APPLE. 293 



In the familiar Apple, the charm of the fruit 

 blinds us, commonly, to the beauty of the foliage. 

 A green Apple leaf is very fresh and delightful, 

 and when the young tissue has fulfilled its office 

 and ministered to the full fruition, the fading 

 leaves are none the less attractive, though they 

 ordinarily drop, unnoticed, to the ground. 



The form of the Wild Apple leaf is ovoid ; but it 

 is pointed at the apex and the margin is rather 

 finely serrated. A mid-vein divides it into two 

 equal portions, and from that a few prominent 

 branch veins, five or six on each side, run to the 

 margin and are usually forked before they reach 

 it. Some thickened, but smaller and less con- 

 spicuous, veins also diverge from each side of the 

 mid -vein and are merged into an irregular network 

 of veinlets that enclose spaces traversed by a very 

 fine and elaborate system of venules. The venation 

 of the Apple leaf is indeed characteristic, in its 

 irregular form, of the tree itself, which, in trunk and 

 ramification, is curiously rugged and contorted. 



On the approach of Autumn a mellow hue over- 

 spreads the light green Apple leaves, sometimes 

 of yellow merging into gold, sometimes of orange, 



