BY

FRANCIS GEORGE HEATH,

EDITOR OF THE NEW EDITION OF "GILPIN'S FOREST SCENERY;

AUTHOR OF

39

"SYLVAN SPRING," "THE FERN WORLD," "MY GARDEN WILD," "OUR WOODLAND TREES,"
"THE FERN PARADISE, ""BURNHAM BEECHES,"
," "TREES AND FERNS," "PEASANT LIFE,"

"WHERE TO FIND FERNS," "THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY," ETC.

WITH TWELVE COLOURED PLATES,

Produced in FACSIMILE from Leaves collected and arranged by the Author; Four Page
and Fourteen Vignette Wood Illustrations of New Forest Scenery, engraved (from
Drawings by FREDERICK G. SHORT) by JAMES D. COOPER; and Twelve Initial-letter
Leaf Designs by the Author.

SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,

CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.

19182.

1881.

[All rights reserved.]

e.

12.

PREFACE.

N the preliminary

chapter- The blossoming of Autumn'-the Author has fully explained the object and scope of this volume. In putting it forth as what he believes to be the first attempt ever made in Eng

land to reproduce in facsimile-if that expression may be allowed-not merely the exquisite tinting but the forms and venation of the most prominent and conspicuous of the leaves whose dying splendour lights up with so much of brilliancy and beauty our autumnal hedges and woodlands, the Author desires to say that the work is the out

come of a minute and careful study of the subject pursued during many years.

It is a singular circumstance that, with all the resources which art possesses in the present day, and in view, especially, of the wealth of illustration that has been brought into requisition in the endeavour to reproduce the flowers of the field,' no one should have attempted to reproduce the 'blossoms of Autumn' as represented by autumnal leaves. The neglect, in a literary and pictorial sense, of this most fascinating branch of natural science is doubtless only accidental, and it does not arise from any lack of appreciation of the subject. But the fact remains that, rich as this subject is in itself, and full as it is of attraction for the lovers of Nature, it has, by pictorial art, in the especial phase in which it is here represented, been wholly overlooked.

Merely general references-such as may be found abundantly both in poetry and prose-to the glory and beauty of Autumn,

Best portion of the various year, in which
Nature rejoiceth, smiling on her works,
Lovely to full perfection wrought,'

still leave unsatisfied the desire to know some