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When the Leaves Begin to Turn: September: Take

Take the shapes alone. Not only is there the great variety which distinguishes different families of leaves from one another -- think of the elephant ears of the Catalapa, and then of the needles of the Pine -- but different species of the same family are sometimes so unlike that you'd never suppose they were any relation. Some Oaks, for example, are so "unoakish" in outline that you'd say, right off: "Why, this is no Oak at all!"

But, by and by, you see the acorn come along. Then, of course, there can be no doubt about it. The leaves of the Chestnut-Oak look much more like the leaves of the Chestnut than they do like the leaves of the general run of Oaks; and if you want to tell the Ash from that of the Hickory before the nutting-season you'll have trouble, unless you remember that Ash leaves are always "opposite" on the midrib while on the Hickory they're "alternate."1 ("Opposite," in tree language, means just that-the simple leaves on a twig or the leaflets on the midrib of a compound leaf are exactly opposite each other; while "alternate" means that they are not opposite each other but are arranged at different heights, like the steps of a stairway.) On the other hand, the tree known as the Box-Elder has leaves so much like those of the Ash you'd never dream it was a Maple until you saw its seeds.

THE WAYWARD WAY OF THE SASSAFRAS LEAVES Yes, and leaves right on the same tree sometimes differ so that you'd declare they came from different kinds of trees. From three different kinds of trees, even!