30 



for color: and the purple-leaved beeches, birches, and bar- 

 berry, etc., have a deeper color in the sun. The stems, 

 peduncles, pedicels and calyx of Phytolacca decandra, L. 

 turn from green to a deep crimson. The coloration of 

 many other stems and petioles on their sunny side, and the 

 rosy cheek of the apple, pear, and peach is of a similar 

 nature. These, as also the spring examples already men- 

 tioned, are the colors of health and vigor, and should be 

 distinguished from the tints of the dying leaf ; they are at 

 times however so similar that it is difficult to determine to 

 which class they belong. The development of color in 

 flowers themselves is not unlike that of the parts of the 

 plant mentioned. In Begonia vernon the red color of the 

 flower was seen in the foliage, only that it was modified by 

 the chlorophyll. The white and pink varieties of this plant 

 have their foliage unchanged by sunlight. 



Florists are often able to determine the color of the future 

 flower by the tint or shade of the leaf. 



Coleus, Acharanthus and similar foliage j^lants are so 

 surcharged with their coloring ingredients as not to be 

 dependent upon strong sunlight, but the greater part of 

 evergreens, which become more or less changed, and the 

 brightest hues of autumn require direct sunlight as a factor 

 in connection with other inducing agents. 



The golden leaved Elderberry changes its youngest leaves 

 from green to yellow. Yellow with few exceptions does 

 not require the sunlight to develop, but it is of a richer 

 color with it. 



The season for autunmal tints may, for convenience, be 

 divided into three periods : from the middle of August to 

 the middle of September, from the middle of September or 

 the first lio-ht frosts, until the middle of October, and the 

 last period extending to middle of November, or for ever- 

 greens, into December. In the first, it is virtually summer 

 protracted into September ; usually a very dry season with 

 little or no rain, when vegetation often suffers from drought. 



