Seasonal Notes.— December 361 



Everyone must have noticed the rich crimson colour 

 assumed by leaves of the greater Barberry in the autumn. 

 Sometimes it is only one leaf or one part of a leaf, sometimes 

 all the leaves on one twig, or on one bough, and sometimes the 

 whole shrub. If it be only one leaf or one twig, some injury 

 to the footstalk or the stem of that twig may be looked for, 

 and will usually be found. In the same way, if a whole 

 bough loses its green and assumes colour, some damage to 

 the bark may be suspected. There is now under observation 

 in a garden at Haslemere a low Barberry shrub which exhibits 

 on different branches all varieties of colour. It is close over 

 a small drain-pipe, in the placing of which its roots have no 

 doubt been injured. The leaves of the bough nearest to the 

 pipe are grey brown, and obviously quite dead. Another 

 bough has leaves of a brilliant crimson, and these on the side 

 furthest away from the pipe are of various delicate shades of 

 salmon tint on towards scarlet. Other bushes of the Barberry 

 near to this are still quite green. 



The hazel, like the bistort, allows its leaves to brown at 

 their tips and edges long before the middle of the leaf is 

 involved. It outstrips the bistort in that not only does the 

 marginal portion become brown but it shrivels and curls up 

 quite dead whilst the rest of the leaf remains alive. 



The ash, which is often the last of our native trees to get 

 its leaves- in spring, keeps them long in the autumn. It is, 

 however, very variable. Curiously, it breaks the rule of mos 

 trees, under which small and young individuals keep their 

 leaves longest. Before the writer's window stand in a hedge 

 three ash trees, of about thirty feet high ; they are all 

 quite leafless, whilst a large spreading tree within a hundred 

 yards of them is still in full green summer foliage. It is, 

 according to the calendar, November 17, but the season is 

 a month behind hand. Other large ash trees are quite 

 leafless. 



