102 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



leaves' of many forest trees are brightly colored, never 

 enjoy the wonderful feast of color displayed in the 

 forests and countrysides of this and other northern 

 continental areas. They have other things of which 

 we may envy them but autumn tints are peculiarly 

 our own. The brightly colored Codiaeums of the trop- 

 ics and our hot-houses (where they are erroneously 

 called Crotons), beautiful as they are, do not equal 

 the Red Maple, Sugar Maple, Sassafras, and Tulip 

 Tree in the fall. No scene in nature is more delight- 

 ful than the woods of eastern North America in the 

 fulness of their autumn splendor. 



It is a weakness of humans to crave most those 

 things beyond their immediate reach, but the wise 

 among us are content to enjoy those which fall within 

 the sphere of everyday life. To revel in the splendid 

 riot of autumn color no long journey has to be under- 

 taken. It is at our very door. From the St. Law- 

 rence Valley and the Canadian Lakes southward to 

 the Alleghany Mountains there is displayed each 

 autumn a scene of entrancing beauty not surpassed the 

 world over. Central Europe, Japan, China, and other 

 parts of eastern Asia have their own season of autumn 

 color and each area has its individuality but, if they 

 rival, they cannot surpass the forest scenes of eastern 

 North America. 



