PARK AND CEMETERY. 
BEAUTIFUL FALL FOLIAGE. 
At this season of the year, late autumn, our 
woods and groves present a beautiful picture. Cer- 
tainly, spring and fall are the most pleasing seasons 
of the year. In the spring the budding leaves and 
opening flowers, coming after the cold of winter, 
inspire us with hope for the coming year, and we 
are at that time prone to think no other period of 
the year so full of pleasure. Beautiful as are the 
woods in spring, and the well planted lawns of the 
wealthy, as a picture of varied colors the woods of 
autumn are far preferable. And we not only have 
our native trees and shrubs; there are also those of 
Japan, many of which are of as brilliant colors as 
our own. In the way of maples, for instance, we 
have of the native sorts the red and the sugar, and 
from Japan the many forms of polymorphum and 
the rufinervum. The native ones referred to are so 
well known that it is not needful to describe them. 
But of the Japanese ones I would wish to say a few 
words. The polymorphum and varieties are famed 
for pretty and for colored foliage at all times 
when in leaf, but it is not well known that in 
the fall there is added a most brilliant red color to 
the polymorphum itself and to the variety atropur- 
pureum, the latter being the now common Japanese 
blood-leaved maple. This occurs about two weeks 
before the leaves fall. Rufinervum is the counterpart 
of our native striped maple, excepting that it colors 
beautifully in the fall, which the striped maple 
does not. 
Of our two gums, the sweet and the sour, I 
prefer the sweet. The sour gum with us is a tran- 
sient affair, the leaves coloring today, and falling a 
few days later. On the ether hand, the sweet gum 
changes color gradually, and the leaves hold on a 
good while, and when growing in a damp place, 
which it prefers to do, the bronze yellow of its 
foliage is most pleasing. 
The sorrel tree, Oxydendron arboreum, a native, 
is a tree with leaves much like the sour gum, and 
coloring much the same. The fall foliage is 
very lasting, displaying its brilliant color for 
weeks. 
Much has been written of sumachs, and their 
beauty at this time, and well they deserve it. What 
a display the tall one, Rhus typhina makes. Then 
there are glabra and its variety laciniata. But has 
enough been said of the value of aromatica and cop- 
allina ? Aromatica has not the stiff growth of most 
sumachs. Its branches are somewhat slender, and its 
growth partly spreading. It takes on the “Sumach” 
color to perfection, later in the season than some oth- 
ers. Copallina is pretty the whole season through. 
Its dwarf growth, lovely, shining green foliage, 
bright scarlet heads of seeds, and lastly, deep red 
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foliage in fall, comprise more good qualities than are 
given to most plants. 
Our common dogwood, Cornus florida, needs no 
eulogium, its worth is too well known, but I do not 
think that it is known that the red flowered one has 
darker colored foliage in the fall than the other. 
But it has. A rich, dark red, it may be termed. 
There is a tint of red in the leaves all the season 
through, and this lasts till they fall. 
Oaks change color with us rather later than 
many other trees. There are, really, but three of 
the common ones of much value for bright colors, 
the scarlet, the red and the pin. The scarlet, the 
best of all, is the last of all to change from green to 
scarlet. I cannot explain why it is that small seed- 
lings of many other oaks take on brilliant fall col- 
ors, which they do not when of larger size. The 
macrocarpa, Prinus, Phellos, castanea and imbric- 
aria, are lovely during the first few years of their 
seedling life, but after they pass three to four feet 
in height, there is no more bright coloring. 
There is hardly a tree that is not beautiful in the 
autumn. Hardly one changes directly as the others 
do. The Tulip Tree, sassafras, hickories and 
many others all vary. The practical and artistic 
planter will study the peculiar changes of each, to 
form a picture to be admired in the fall. Just the 
same differences exist in shrubs. The very common 
golden bell becomes almost black, so does the privet, 
the Mahonia aquifolia, and many of the semi-ever- 
green roses. 
Among bright colored shrubs, but few equal the 
tall huckleberry, Vaccinium corymbosum. Its 
leaves become of an intense scarlet. Nearly all 
Vacciniums are lovely in the same way, but not to 
such a degree, and so are Andromedas. There are 
several Viburnums to be allowed on the list, notably 
rotundifolium, prunifolium, and Lentago — all good. 
Berberis Thunbergii is good, but it needs a mass 
of it to make a good display, its leaves are so small. 
Itea Virginica, Pyrus sinensis, Ribes aureum, 
and Spiraea prunifolia are a few of many kinds 
which by their pretty foliage add to the charm of 
the autumn. 
Joseph Meehan. 
The Commissioners of Lincoln Park, Chicago, 
propose to expend some $400,000 the coming year 
in renovations and improvements. The walks need 
much work, the lawns have been a heavy expense 
to keep in condition, and the sea wall has been 
partially destroyed by recent lake storms. It is 
the intention, if funds are provided as expected, to 
make permanent repairs, and put the park into 
finer condition than it ever was before, and more 
worthy of the great metropolis of the west. 
