120 A UTUMNAL COLOR ON THE LA WN. 



type. There may and should be, doubtless, variety in even 

 the background, but in the main the mass efEect must be in 

 this case dark green. Variety may be obtained by white- 

 stemmed birches, and the branches even of deciduous trees 

 that have lost their leaves. Deciduous trees, by the by, 

 should make up the major portion, - if not all, of oui' 

 autumnal effect. Evergreens, except as they may be used 

 here and there very sparingly to punctuate, as it were, the 

 mass of the background, should not be employed, because, 

 as a rule, they do not look well associated with deciduous 

 trees. 



Now and then great variety of form may be attained in 

 the background by using in the immediate outskirts of the 

 grouping, rigid-looking, grotesque, naked branches, like 

 those of the Japan ginkgo and pyramidal oak. 



The Kentucky coffee-tree shows in this background 

 delicate, pleasing outlines, early denuded as it is of foliage. 

 Indeed it is one of the most attractive of deciduous trees, 

 with its peculiar trunk and branches, and its light, 

 feathery, graceful foliage. Wide-spreading branches of the 

 curious weeping elm, lately referred to, standing well for- 

 ward in the mass, serve to vary the effect with partially 

 naked limbs, for the leaves of this elm hang on late. 



The broad, rounded contours of that loveliest of decidu- 

 ous trees, the Cladnistis tinctoria, Virgilea lutea, or yellow 

 wood, increase this variety with curious branching and beauty 

 of yellow fading foliage. The background is thus subtly 

 shaded, and yet broad and massive. Dark-green color 

 characterizes the bulk of the plantation, while all sameness 

 of color is relieved by browns and grays of other foliage, and 



