When the leaves put on these bright colors it is the beginning of their death. They soon fall to the ground, and decay, and become a part of the earth. Some one has said that flowers are God’s smiles. So we may say that God smiles upon us in the dying leaf, when he makes it so much like a flower.
What makes the colors of the leaves in autumn.
How it is that all these different colors are made in the leaves in the autumn we know not. It is said that the frost makes them, but no one can tell how it does it. And, indeed, it is probably not the frost alone that thus paints the leaves, for the change sometimes begins before any frost is perceived. We do not understand how this effect is produced any better than we do how the various colors of the flowers are made.
Forests in England.
It is singular that in England the leaves do not appear in these very bright colors in autumn, so that an Englishman is astonished at the beauty of our forests in that season of the year. Now why it is that the leaves are not affected there, in the same way that they are here, we do not know. It is supposed that it is because there is more dampness there than there is with us. Whatever may be the cause, it makes a great difference with the beauty of autumnal scenery. We should hardly be willing to exchange the brilliancy of an American October day for the dull colors presented by the forests in England.
Questions.—Why is autumn called the fall of the year? What are evergreens? What is told about quince-trees and currant-bushes? What is said of the colors of leaves just before they fall? Tell about the maple as its leaves are changing. How do the forests look in the bright sun when the leaves are changed? How do they look just before sundown? How when shadows of clouds are passing over them? What is said about God’s making the dying leaves so much like flowers? Do we know how the colors are made in the leaves in autumn? What is said about the leaves in England?
CHAPTER XXII.
LEAF-BUDS.
Leaves come from buds just as flowers do. If you look at the buds in the spring on a tree you see that they are beginning to swell. They grow larger and larger, like the buds that turn into blossoms. After a while they unfold, and the green leaves are spread out.
How is it, you will want to know, that these leaves are made? They are very different from the leaves of the blossoms; but, like them, they are made out of the sap. The sap comes constantly to the leaf-bud, just as it does to the flower-bud, through the fine pipes in the stem. And so this sap is made into leaves.