THE MAGAZINE 



OP 



HORTICULTURE. 



DECEMBER, 1853. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. The Fall of the Leaf. By Wilson Flagg. 



The two most interesting periods to one who is in the 

 habit of associating some agreeable sentiment with the phases 

 of nature, occur when the trees are putting forth their tender 

 leaves and flowers in the opening of the year, and when they 

 are assuming the variegated hues that precede the fall of the 

 leaf. Hence the spring and the autumn have always been 

 regarded as preeminently the two poetical seasons — the one 

 emblemising the period of youth, the other that of old age. 

 But to the eye of the painter as well as the poet do these two 

 seasons offer the greatest attractions. In the spring, while 

 the leaves are bursting from their hibernacles, and unfolding 

 their plaited forms, they exhibit a great variety of tints, which 

 are constantly changing with the progress of their develop- 

 ment. In autumn, during a space of about two weeks, they 

 pass through another succession of hues ; and this change, 

 connected with the fall of the leaf, has given rise to many 

 pleasing sentiments, which have been woven into the poetry 

 of all nations. It is a common fallacy to regard those objects 

 as the most picturesque which have the least positive beauty : 

 but landscape painters, actuated by a diflferent opinion, have, 

 for the purpose of adding a picturesque charm to the scenes 

 they portray, most frequently chosen the autumn for their 

 representations, and given to their trees the beautiful tints ol 

 the declining year. 



VOL. XIX. NO. XII. 67 



