Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-24
NATURE In AUTUMN
BY d. C. PEATTIE.

tians, all proclaim Ave! vale!" 1t is
| finished
Time now for the glories to come
down, as stage set is removed when
the great act is over. Time for the
leaves to fall, for the herons to be gone
| out of the marshes, for the turning of
the pumpkins in the field, the flight of
the cat-tail seeds.
Color in the Scene.
The drought was hard on the Au-
tumn glory of the woods 1t sent the
leaves OF hickory, ash, linden and elm
to falling before their time, and in the
f1erce crisping they received, they
dropped without time to perfect their
colorS. They dropped dead, quite literal
~, and they looked 1t, whereas the leaf
in normal seasons is generally not ut
| teIly cead at the time that it falls. It
is still soft and lovely and shot through
with living colors. But there are leaves
that stand the drought conditions bet
Ter, especially in the case of shrubs.
The Sumac is perhaps the gaudiest
autumn foliage in our woods. Europe
has nothing to compare with it for
color. When you see a gorgeous splash
OF Autumn crimson in Europe it is gen.
orally due to the Virginia creeper, our
own Virginia creeper, while our black
berries and blueberries are unmatched.
The European naples are dismal affairs
compared with the orange and YER
million OF our trees. Our red oaks are
not found on the other side of the
water, and it is they that make up half
the panoply of Autumn display. The
tulip tree is like a pyramid of pure gold
the beeches are old gold, the dogWood
leaves are startling crimson.
A little observation ought to correct
the habit of teaching children that
frost turns the leaves It is quite as
simple to learn that the coloring is due
TO the old age of the leaf and that the
precious foodStuffs manufactured in the
leaf have been withdrawn into the roots,
including, perhaps, the green coloring
matter itself.
AS the cells break down, red and vel
low chemicals, which have been sup.
| pressed or uniformed in Summer. rush
! 10 the surface and mark the senescence
| OF the leaf. To me this is quite as
dramatic as Jack Frost, and a good deal
more worth learning.
District WiIdfiOwers.
The Summer and Spring are over. In
tnat space OF time 1880 wildfiowers
nave doomed in the District of Column
ola, and, as the year rounds to its close
the nature lover takes an affectionate
inventory Of that abundant blooming
mat oounteous outpouring of color and
scent, symmetrical or fantastic shape
and enchanting texture.
| Most of all, the colors of the wears
toll OF flowers captivate the imagina-
ton, and, though we are given to
guessing about the dominant colors of
| spring and other seasons, nobody. so
Tar as / know, has made a study of it
based upon statistics
l have undertaken this Gin an anna
teurlsh way, on the backs of enyelopes)
and find that white is easily the lead
ing color. That, of course, is but way
! OF saying no color, as black represents
an absorption of all the rays in the
spectrum, so white means that none
| nave been absorbed But the effect of
white flower upon the imagination is
not one Of nullity, but of grace, purity
and freshness,
Yellow comes second best, If we ex-
cept the color green, which predomi-
mates by sheer weight of numbers in the
grass, Sedge and rush families. OF con-
splcuouS flowers very few are green; in
TACT, that color sinks down to the bot
tom OF the list, and for a very good
| Resemblance wishes the flower to be
In sharp contrast to the leaves.
Next comes purple, that princely coll
or, and here I include violet and "im-
pure" blues and reds. After white, yell
| ~" ana purple, winch are the big
three" comes the much smaller group
In order of Importance, red, blue or
ange, brown and green.
What an artist would call pure red
or pure blue is very rare, at least
among the District wild flowers. There
are some very snowy orange flowers, but
they are very few in number, and
brown is distinctly frowned upon by
Nature in the temperate world, though
there are some splendid brown flowers
In the tropics.
| Fiction writer's give us the impress
sion that the tropics are bowers OF
; mowers all around the Equator. Make
no mistake, you will see more beautiful
: flowers in one Maryland field than ir
30 Topic miles. The tropics are the
5 land OF trees. We have nothing II
= touch the tropics for variety or mag.
$ innocence OF tree, shrub and vine. Blu
many, perhaps most of them, have in.
: conspicuous flowers, borne high up ii
[ their branches. It is fruits rather thar
S flowers In which the tropics excel
7 though / am not forgetting tropica
v orchids. the royal poinciana, the birG
. OF paradise flower, the Dutchman's pip,
vine, the ilang-ilang and other splendit
q trouic flowers. But give me a field O
e Autumn asters for that spritelike beau
ty that the word flower" conveys q
our minds.