LEAF AND BRANCH 
265 
many are the transitions through which they 
pass before they gain their summer coats. The 
maples and the willows are the earliest ones 
to leaf out, and the oaks about the last ones. 
When the first leaves of the white oak shine 
against the blue sky like blossoms, almost all 
of the other trees are far out in foliage, and 
yet the buds of the black oak and the hickory 
are just beginning to break. 
Early in July the leaves have reached matur- 
ity in size and color. After that they change 
little for two months, except that some of them 
grow more shiny and others again appear to dim 
their lustre. The character of the tree as por- 
trayed in texture and color is now well devel- 
oped, and the delicate honey-locust, the leath- 
ery-leaved hickory, the drooping willow, the 
shaking aspen, and the copper-beech are all in 
their prime, contrasting with and relieving one 
another in the landscape. 
The massed foliage when seen on cloudy 
days during the summer months is dense, dark, 
and bluish; on clear days it is bright green, 
and under strong sunlight, often fire-green. 
The predominant note everywhere is green, but 
it has its thousand varieties in tints and shades, 
and each one of these has a gamut of its own, 
Summer 
foliage. 
The variety 
of greens. 
