JANUAEY. 35 



silent and secluded around, for the breeze was above 

 the tree tops, only a solitary jay, flitting on the edge 

 of the wood, screaming at iny intrusion ; but the eye, 

 dropping its gaze below, was relieved, by the masses 

 of cushion-like verdant goldilocks moss, beauteous 

 amidst . brown leaves and dead sticks that covered 

 the soil, and reminded, by the grey-green lichens 

 on the bark of the trees, that life was still there, 

 though resting, for a season, on the breast of mother 

 earth, but soon to spring up again, with renewed 

 lustre." 



Notwithstanding such breaks of beauty caught, 

 it might almost seem by stealth, like a coloured 

 feather from a bird's wing an uninitiated enquirer 

 might be tempted to ask What, by any possibility, 

 can the botanical explorator observe, or remark upon, 

 in the month of January? All the dull, gloomy, 

 and horrific epithets language can furnish may be 

 justifiably heaped upon this dreary portion of the 

 year: to look on a cheerless, leafless, lifeless, damp, 

 and foggy landscape even from between one's draw- 

 ing-room curtains is bad enough ; but to go out into 

 it, is unendurable. Surely this look-out may be fairly 

 postponed for a month or two, or, at all events, its 

 glories may be summed up in this one expressive line 

 of the poet of " The Seasons :" 



" How dead the Vegetable Kingdom lies.'' 

 Dead indeed ! and, unless my eyes deceive me, buried 

 too ; for I see something uncommonly like snow upon 

 the meadows, or, if it be not there now, I may safely 

 prophecy (without a weather prophet's aid) that it 

 will be there before the month has reached its termi- 

 nation. But surely something may even now be 



D2 



