232 The Fall of the Leaf 



profuse and constant as those of the Norwegian 

 maples. Even when transplanted to our own more 

 temperate skies, these oaks and maples remain 

 true to acquired habit, and set a splash of colour 

 in the midst of the trees of park or garden which 

 shines out amidst its surroundings like the glow of 

 an October field-fire in a windy nightfall. Yet the 

 primitive appetite for pure colour, which everyone 

 more or less consciously possesses, could hardly 

 require a fuller satisfaction than it can find in 

 English woodlands, and along English hedgerows, 

 when the right moment is chosen in autumn's gradual 

 decline, and the sun shines in limpid October 

 brilliance through an atmosphere washed clear by 

 rain. 



The richest of all displays of autumn foliage in 

 Britain is that of a great wood of beeches such as 

 is a feature of nearly every landscape on the chalk 

 hills of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxford- 

 shire, and on limestone soils elsewhere. The 

 beeches assume so many different shades of yellow 

 and red, ranging from a clear, deep crimson, through 

 orange, to cream-colour and lemon yellow, that 

 there is no need of any other kind of tree to give 

 variety to the hues of the picture. The third week 

 in October is the usual time when the brilliance of 

 the beeches is the greatest, just as the third week 

 of May can be awaited with fair confidence as the 

 date when they display most fully the exquisite 

 silky green of their unfurling leaves. The high 

 hillside beech-woods then outroll such a splendour 

 of flame that they seem to give a new keenness 



