OBSERVATIONS 



ON 



THE COLORS OF LEAVES. 



Every one is familiar with the colors of autumn leaves, 

 but comparatively few have })aid attention to the more 

 (juiet, yet beautiful, hues of the young and tender leaves 

 of many trees and shrubs in springtime. 



Perhaps one-half of the different species display, in the 

 unfolding leaf, colors other than green, such as silv-er-gray, 

 pink, red, purple brown, or bronze green, with a very few 

 of a yellow or white color. These colors are for the most 

 l)art of a transitory character, lasting for a few weeks only, 

 when they are gradually replaced hy the more permanent 

 and all prevailing chlorophyll green. They are not peculiar 

 to spring, but ai)pear on all recent leaves of the same i)Iants 

 throughout the growing season until fall. 



It has been thought that these temporary colors may serve 

 as a screen to protect the young chlorophyll granules from 

 the too warm rays of the sun. In certain plants as the 

 purple beech, purple barberry, etc., the color persists until 

 the cool fall weather and then disappears. While these 

 temporary hues of spring foliage resemble in some respects 

 the autumnal hues, they are evidently of a different chem- 

 ical composition, for the latter result from the disintegra- 

 tion of the chlorophyll, while the former appear to be due 

 to additions to the cell contents ; yet many of the same 

 trees and shrubs conspicuous for color in the spring, after 

 their foliage has completed its summer work of assimilation, 

 array themselves again in very similar but nuich brighter 



