326 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



with its crimson berries in feasting the eye with 

 the charm of colour. 



The Hawthorn leaf is very various in form, 

 being sometimes almost triangular and sometimes 

 four-sided, and it is deeply cut into lobes 

 which vary in number from three to seven, and 

 are more or less acute or rounded. From the 

 mid-vein a principal vein runs to each principal 

 lobe, and veinlets branch from the principal veins 

 to the smaller lobes, whilst a network of venules 

 traverses the spaces lying between the lines of the 

 more important veins. 



Probably excepting the Bramble there is 

 no other hedge shrub or woodland tree for the 

 Hawthorn is both that presents so great a 

 variety and such magnificence of colours in the 

 early season of Autumn : and one of the most 

 interesting of country rambles, for any one who 

 loves the beauties of leafage, is a walk at that 

 season by Hawthorn hedges. The pure pleasure 

 of noting the really marvellous varieties of tinting 

 of this delightful plant is very great, and it is well 

 nigh inexhaustible. Side by side, upon the same 

 bush, we may find deep, dark, glossy green leaves 



