LEAF AND BRANCH 



265 



many are the transitions through which they 

 pass before they gain their summer coats. The 

 maples and the willows are the earliest ones 

 to leaf out, and the oaks about the last ones. 

 When the first leaves of the white oak shine 

 against the blue sky like blossoms, almost all 

 of the other trees are far out in foliage, and 

 yet the buds of the black oak and the hickory 

 are just beginning to break. 



Early in July the leaves have reached matur- 

 ity in size and color. After that they change 

 little for two months, except that some of them 

 grow more shiny and others again appear to dim 

 their lustre. The character of the tree as por- 

 trayed in texture and color is now well devel- 

 oped, and the delicate honey-locust, the leath- 

 ery-leaved hickory, the drooping willow, the 

 shaking aspen, and the copper-beech are all in 

 their prime, contrasting with and relieving one 

 another in the landscape. 



The massed foliage when seen on cloudy 

 days during the summer months is dense, dark, 

 and bluish ; on clear days it is bright green, 

 and under strong sunlight, often fire-green. 

 The predominant note everywhere is green, but 

 it has its thousand varieties in tints and shades, 

 and each one of these has a gamut of its own, 



