TREE PLANTING ON STREETS AND HIGHWAYS. 39 



ing red, change from green to yellow or russet ; but, whatever the peculiarity in this 

 respect, each individual will retain it in a marked degree year after year. The per- 

 sistency of this abnormal variation in color has been observed so often that the 

 reasonable suggestion is' made that horticulturists and nurserymen might be able, 

 by using cuttings or grafts from trees or branches that exhibit a constant color, to 

 propagate trees of desirable autumn tints and furnish stock to their customers, war- 

 ranted to display certain attractive features in this respect. The Purple or Copper 

 Beech, used so extensively in lawn planting, was propagated in this way from a 

 single tree, which showed an abnormal color in its foliage.* 



There seems to be a popular impression that the period in which our forests dis- 

 play their autumnal beauty is of brief duration. A little thought and observation 

 will show that this is hardly the case. By the first of August, throughout New 

 England and the Middle States, many of our soft maples display their scarlet 

 standards of approaching fall ; in September the forests on our mountain slopes 

 and upland plateaus are at their best ; in October the woodlands along our valleys, 

 and the trees that line our village streets, present their most brilliant effects; and 

 even in November the persistent russet leaves of the oaks are still in pleasing evi- 

 dence, while here and there on some late maturing trees may be seen a faint glow 

 befitting this twilight season of the year. Thus we have four months in which to 

 study this pleasing exhibition of Nature, a period nearly as long as that in which 

 the vernal foliage retains its uniformity of green. It would seem, however, that 

 the annual recurrence of this lavish display is not appreciated as it should be, that 

 little attention is paid to it aside from the few who delight in Nature study. 

 Thoreau very justly remarks that " If such a phenomenon occurred but once it 

 would be handed down by tradition to posterity, and get into the mythology at 

 last." 



Like the procession of the seasons the various tree species assume their autumn 

 garb in a regular order. In some localities it may be early or late; but, then, our 

 spring or fall does not always arrive in accordance with the almanac. Here and 

 there individual trees may be slow in donning their gay livery ; and there are spots 

 where winter lingers, though all around the land is warm with returning spring. 



To give the exact order in which the trees turn color would require too many 

 exceptions and explanations. As the maturing of the foliage occupies a period of 



* " Most of the purple beeches now in cultivation are probably derived from a tree of this variety, 

 discovered in the last century in the Hanleiter Forest, near Sondershausen, in Thuringia, which is sup- 

 posed to be about two hundred years old, and is still alive." (Prof. Charles S. Sargent. Silva of North 

 America, Vol. IX, p. 24.) See, also, " The Origin of the Purple Beech." Garden and Forest, VII, 2. 



