AUTUMNAL COLOURING 81
garden. Towards the end of the month and begin- ning of November the great chenar trees gradually assumed the gorgeous autumn colouring. The Virginian creeper on the porch turned to every rich hue of red and purple. Then the glories of the garden slowly faded. The leaves fell from the trees. The frost turned the turf brown. On December Ist there were still a few brave remnants of the summer splendour—a few tea-roses, stocks, phlox, wallflower, chrysanthemums, carnations, petunias, gaillardia, nasturtiums, salvia, snapdragons, and one or two violets. But the temperature was now 25° at night, and the maximum in the day only 54°, and these flowers soon disappeared, and the only consolation left was the clearer view of the mountains which the absence of foliage on the trees allowed. Thus ends the story of a garden’s glory.
