AUTUMN STUDIES 



Early in August we are surprised each year by 

 the glowing leaves on the tupelo, a little patch of 

 scarlet gleaming in the swamp, while the high 

 blueberry is still in fruit and the silver-rod is 

 making its appearance. By the time the wood- 

 lilies have faded in the huckleberry pasture, the 

 red bunchberries add their bit of color to the 

 carpet on the edge of the swamp. The large 

 berries of the clintonia turn that rare shade of blue 

 which they retain but a short time, growing darker 

 as they ripen. This delicate bloom appears later 

 on the berries of the smilax, the frost-grapes, the 

 savin and the viburnums ; but in the clintonia there 

 is an admixture of some tint lacking in these, 

 which gives a finer blue, as though there were 

 reflected here some remoter depths of the heavens, 

 a bit of ethereal and celestial color imprisoned for 

 a moment. Mountain-holly is now in its prime, 

 its berries of a deep cherry, perhaps one of the 

 richest reds to be found in nature, as those of the 



