The Fall of the Leaf 231 



is a true native ; nor is the beech either so forward 

 as the elm in spring or so tenacious of its glowing 

 foliage under the autumn suns and rains. Yet 

 the beech is almost as certainly a native as the elm 

 is a foreigner, though naturalized in very early 

 times. The rounder wych-elm, which is an un- 

 doubted native, is among the dullest-hued of our 

 trees, both in the flaming weeks of autumn and 

 when the new leaves shoot in spring. Its own 

 characteristic beauty is revealed in winter, when 

 its rather uninteresting foliage no longer hides 

 the delicate grace and balance of its branching 

 stems. 



The colours of our English trees in autumn make, 

 on the whole, a much less vivid and conspicuous 

 display than is to be seen during October and early 

 November among the forests of Canada and the 

 United States. The English climate has a hatred 

 of extremes which seems to stamp itself on the 

 foliage matured by its woods. Brilliant and beauti- 

 ful as is often the beechwood in its scarlet and 

 orange, or the crimson column of the wild cherry 

 at the copse's edge, there is something more deeply 

 in sympathy with English scenery about the deep,_ 

 mouldering russets of the November oak-crowns. 

 No brightness of the autumn sunshine can quite 

 kindle it into living flame, though it glows on 

 steadfastly and strongly long after the more 

 fugitive glories of the beech have been stripped by 

 the late October gales. There are no scarlets in 

 the English woods so unfailingly brilliant as those 

 of the American oaks, nor even any yellows so 



