108 The Parks. 



appearance, for all about them the leaves have turned to 

 most vivid colors, while they alone have assumed so white 

 and ghostly a shade. In the chestnuts and some of the 

 oaks, the green color remains longest near the mid-rib, and 

 in the oaks it is often a deep olive shade, and greatly adds 

 to the beauty of the turning leaf. The wild cherry trees 

 color an orange red, and the seedling cultivated cherries 

 are flushed with red and look to be in a fever. The chest- 

 nut-oaks turn a light yellow, as do the chestnut trees and 

 the hickories. 



There is a vividness of color in many of the leaves that 

 seems almost supernatural, and it is plain that we, who live 

 and grow old on the Earth, can never cease to wonder at 

 the yearly display. " Look," says the little boy, " at that 

 Virginia creeper," and in manhood he points again in 

 wonderment at the flaming red vine in the cedar tree. 



The swamp-oaks grow in numbers in the sandy soil, 

 which is not very dry a yard or more below the surface. 

 It nevertheless produces an effect upon the trees, whose 

 horizontal branches start close to the ground, often resting 

 upon it, and whose leaves are finer and more incised than 

 when the trees stand in a richer soil. The cat-brier 

 (Smi/ax glaucd) that grows on the dunes, also shows the 

 effect of the sandy ground, and the vines have larger and 

 more frequent tubers for the storage of moisture and 

 nourishment, than when they grow in wetter situations. 



The semi-woodland pastures and barren fields are 

 favorite haunts of the doves, and often they coo in the 

 cedar trees, or come flying by with whistling wings. The 

 far-away voice of the dove ! — no bird note gives such 



