in Thoreau’s Journal:

I suspect that I know on what the brilliancy of the autumnal tints will depend. On the greater or less drought of the summer. If the drought has been uncommonly severe, as this year, I should think it would so far destroy the vitality of the leaf that it would attain only to a dull, dead color in autumn; that to be brilliant in autumn, the plant should be full of sap and vigor to the last.

September 25, 2014