Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-02-14
ABOUT AUTUMN LEAVES
GOVERNMENT EXPERT SEEKING The
SECRET OF THEIR coLORINc.


The governments new bureau of
plant industry is taking up the prob
lem OF how our gorgeous autumnal
foliage receives svariegatej coloring,
writes the Washington correspondent
OF the New York Sun. That is ,one
OBJECT of the investigations which ARE
now being made by Albert F. Woods,
lately appointed pathologist and physi-
ologist of the bureau.
Inc preserve autumn leaves Mr..
Woods says the gatherer should imme-
dlately lay them fat between two
sheets Of new blotting paper spread up
on table top and covered by a stack
OF heavy books. 1t is essential that
all moisture should be pressed out of
them. By this simple process they
should be dry within three or four
hours. So treated they will retain
their beautiful color for years, pro-
vlded they are not exposed to the d.
rect light OF the sun. II not thorough
ly deprived lof their normally large
percentage of water they will soon as
sumo dirty brown tint.
The color of a leaf, said Mr.. Woods,
in explaining his investigations, is fur
nished by minute grains of pigment
within its cells. What we see in the
fresh leaf is not simple green, but a
combination of many pigments, which
when mixed appear as solid green.
Red Is one of the color elements of
fresh leaves. Reddish coloring matter
is usually in liquid form, within the
sap contained by the leaf cells. yell
low, another normal color element,
when combined with green, is the nat
ural shade of the grains of pigment
within each cell. Brown is the nor
nal color of the walls of the cell.
To explain the leaf cells Mr.. Woods
says that he would exhibit a very thin
rubber ball filled with the white of an
egg mixed with water He would add
to this liquid sufficient red dye to dis
solve and color the. entire solution. He
would add also paris green, whose
minute grains will not dissolve. yell
low grains of some powdered sub
stance. likewise insoluble. he would
mingle with the green. The rubber
ball itself would be brown, correspond
ing to the normal color of the leaf
cells walls. Holding the ball up to
the light, the combination of the col
ors in its texture and interior sub
stance would be the green tint of plant
life.
The demonstrate the autumnal
changes in leaf tints he would spread
upon table hundreds of green beads.
out all of one color, then all of another,
and so on, the general shade or tint
of the entire mass undergoing change
all the while. Just so in the autumn
leaf-when any of its elementary col
ors disappear the general affect Of
those remaining clustered in any par
ticular area Is altered.
If an autumn leaf turns entirely red
tnIs tinting is due to the fact that
only its red pigment is left. If it is
yellow all of the other coloring has
been destroyed, except the minute yell
low grains If the leaf turns brown
it can be safely diagnosed as dead. All
living tints have disappeared leaving
only the brown walls of the cells. The
brown leaf is a dingy ruin, within
which every spark of life has been ex-
tinguished.
There has long been controversy
as to the cause of the autumn leafs
coloration," said Mr.. Woods. Some
botanists have attributed it to frosts
We are finding that light frosts, not
sufficient to kill leaves, greatly facili-
tate their coloration by causing an in
crease within them of a normal chemi-
cal ferment, which attacks the color
compounds or color generators in the
cells. We are finding that the oxi-
dation of these color compounds by
this ferment causes the various shades
of color, especially the puppies. orang-
es, etc. The yellows are normally pres
ent in the leaf.
Autumn leaves containing sugar,
such as the naples, sumacs, gums, etc.,
easily oxidize and thus form the rich
reds, puppies and violets so beautiful
to the eye. That is why these, espe-
cially the hard naples, give the most
beautiful autumn leaves. Autumnal
oak leaves do not attract admiration
because they contain much tannin. The
oxidation color of tannic acid is dirty
brown. Leaves which die quickly
never give autumnal colors."
The most gorgeous autumn leaves
according to Mr.. Woods. are produced
by long drawn out fall, whose days
gradually cool from summer heat tC
winter snow. But IL the frost should
come early and the weather should bt
uneven this fall we need not expect
the true autumnal splendors. A heavy
sudden and early frost would kill al
leaves alike and turn them to a mo
notonous brown.
Crimson and scarlet autumn leaves
the most beautiful Of all. are more
abundant in the cooler parts Of thi:
country than elsewhere in the world.
European landscape gardeners arr
coyeting the luxuriance of our au
tumnal foliage and are endeavoring Il
transplant cuttings Of our most vari
colored trees in their own soil. Blu
thus far those trees which produce thu
rich puppies, crimsons and scarlet
have firmly maintained patriotic de
termination to beautify only the land
. scape of their native cline.
|, The east Is much more productive o
beautiful autumn tints than Is tn