LEAF AND BRANCH 
271 
paid small attention to these canons of taste. 
It puts its growths together at random quite 
regardless of the part, but it is not so careless 
about the total result. The mass is always har- 
monious in its breadth. 
The great volume of foliage undoubtedly has 
much to do with making the landscape in 
America harmonious, in spite of abrupt con- 
trasts and vivid hues. The country is really 
exceptional in the extent of its timber-growths ; 
and as for the rainbow foliage of September, 
one never sees elsewhere such a display. The 
vegetation of the tropics, which we vainly im- 
agine corresponds to the brilliant plumage of 
a parrot or a bird of paradise, is on the con- 
trary a mass of dark summer-green the year 
round ; and many of the lands in the tem- 
perate zone show no great forest-color in the 
autumn. The foliage of the Northern United 
States and Canada has about it an incom- 
parable richness, a vibrant sparkling quality 
which one cannot but think peculiar to the coun- 
try itself. The traveller returning from Europe 
can feel a difference in the air and light assoon 
as he enters New York Harbor, and it is per- 
haps the air and the light that make possible 
the intense hues of foliage. 
Tropical 
Sorests. 
American 
Forests. 
