WHTTE BEAM. 295 



hairs which densely clothe its twigs, its leaf- stalks, 

 and the undersides of its leaves, have suggested its 

 common name. In form its leaf is somewhat 

 roundly ovate, the margin being rather irregularly 

 crenated. The venation is exceptionally prominent, 

 on its mealy underside, an almost geometrically 

 straight mid- vein giving off symmetrically regular, 

 opposite pairs of branch veins which run, in an 

 equally straight course, to the margin. These 

 branch veins are forked, near the leaf margin, and 

 give origin to a very fine, but irregular, reticulation 

 of veinlets which are connected both with them 

 and with the mid- vein. 



Though the underside of the White Beam leaf 

 is whitened by the presence of the closely crowd- 

 ing hairs which cover its surface, the upper side 

 is, ordinarily, a deep, dark green, upon which 

 autumnal colouring is very variously shown. Occa- 

 sionally the whole leaf will turn almost uniformly 

 to a bronze hue ; at other times to a light brown 

 or a dark brown, or an orange, or a golden brown 

 or green, or to a rich russet hue. But the inter- 

 mediate kinds of colouring are often very striking 

 by the strong contrasts which they produce. Whilst 



