COLOURS OF FADED LEAVES. 35 



the original green into yellow, and from yellow into brown, 

 and the various shades and tints so produced that the effect 

 is in the main due. The yellow coloration is most distinctly 

 seen in the chestnut and the elm. In the latter the 

 gradual tinging of the deep green with yellow produces a 

 peculiarly beautiful effect; and when the change is complete, 

 and the whole tree (to use one of those figurative expressions 

 to which one is so prone) is arrayed in a garb of gold, the 

 appearance when first seen is almost startling. Arrived at 

 this stage the leaves mostly fall, but retain their yellow 

 hue for a short time only, the colour under the influence 

 of air and moisture rapidly becoming brown, though they 

 remain yellow if quickly dried. The oak and the beech 

 keep their leaves after the yellow stage is passed, and the 

 rich reddish-brown they then exhibit forms a distinct 

 feature in the autumnal landscape. Young beech trees, as 

 every one knows, remain clothed with brown leaves during 

 the winter, and only lose them on the unfolding of the 

 fresh leaves in spring. 



The leaves of some of our native plants, such as the wild 

 cherry, the currant, the bramble, and various species of 

 sorrel, turn of a lively red in autumn ; but this coloration 

 intensified to a positive scarlet is more distinctly seen in 

 some of the exotics which have been introduced into our 

 gardens, such as the Virginian creeper and the Azalea. A 

 mixture of red and yellow is rarely observed on the same 

 leaf. It is a singular circumstance that the leaves of the 

 oak and sycamore, the young shoots of which are so often 

 tinged of a lively red, do not turn red in fading, but yellow, 

 from which it may be inferred that the process of decay in 

 leaves does not lead back to the same stage at which that 

 of development commenced. 



The autumnal purple coloration of leaves is met with in 

 a few native plants, notably the briony, the privet, and the 



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