48 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of a season of inclement weather, which he cannot always look 

 forward to without some apprehension. To these and the like 

 ** the Fall" is an annual recurrence, bringing with it its joys, 

 its rewards, its pleasures, and, it may he, its apprehensions. 

 But the student of Nature is animated by a different feeling 

 from either. He asks, What are the causes at work in the 

 great laboratory of Nature that bring about these ever-varied 

 and beautiful changes in the colour of the leaves of trees in 

 autumn ? To obtain an answer to this question he employs the 

 various methods of scientific investigation. Although I have no 

 intention of attempting to grapple with so difficult a subject in 

 its scientific aspect, I may be permitted to remark that it 

 is undoubtedly a 'problem of absorbing interest which has not 

 yet been fully worked out, so minute are the cells of the leaf in 

 which the changes take place, and their contents so subtle as to 

 elude the grasp of the most skilful investigator and to evade 

 the most delicate chemical tests that have been applied. My 

 present purpose is to give expression to a conviction I have long 

 felt, viz., that we can also gain in our gardens and pleasure- 

 grounds many similar and even more varied effects than 

 such as I have attempted to describe, by careful and suitable 

 selection from the materials at our disposal, and that striking 

 leaf-pictures may be obtained at this season of the year by a 

 judicious arrangement of the selected plants, not less pleasing 

 to the eye than the bolder floral displays of summer. 



Since, then, so much beauty and delicacy of colouring is to be 

 seen in autumn in our native trees and shrubs, what additional 

 effect is produced when the foliage of exotic trees and shrubs 

 sufficiently hardy for our climate is joined to them, or inter- 

 mixed with them ? — or what new combinations of colour can we 

 obtain from exotic trees and shrubs apart from our native ones ? 

 It is simply this : in the first case the effect is greatly heightened 

 and intensified ; in the latter, by selection, a brilliant display can 

 be formed such as is quite unknown among British trees and 

 shrubs, and to produce this is truly a part of the gardener's 

 art. I quote a few instances recently and casually observed. 

 At Coombe Wood a plant of Acer pcUmafaim sangmneum 

 stands in front of a common Birch ; here we have a striking 

 contrast in the colour of the Acer, which retains its sanguineous 

 hue till late, with the silver bark of the Birch, and its foliage 



