DECEMBER. 563 



falling spangles the country far and wide, and the 

 frozen north revels in glittering uniformity. 



" If aught remains of loveliness, 

 Of summer's charms in winter's dress, 

 'Tis in those lightsome shrubberies seen, 

 Where the young fir's undying green 

 Peeps out the cumbering snow between ; 

 'Tis in those laurels bright and bare 

 Shaking their stainless load in air ; 

 'Tis in those shining hollies found, 

 \Vith coral berries studded round; 

 And those proud oaks, upon whose breast 

 The saffron leaves still love to rest." 



Looking out upon such a scene beneath a friend's 

 social sheltering roof, the bright evergreens on the 

 walls typifying the past and the present, wintry 

 glooms sink upon the face of nature unheeded, and 

 the Christmas feast slowly, joyously, yet pensively, 

 passes away. 



Thus the country is shrouded from view in its 

 brumal winding-sheet, and beauteous as is the spec- 

 tacle of unstained universal snow coating meadow, 

 wood, and mountain to the far horizon, yet before a 

 cutting north-east wind drifting the powdery frozen 

 chrystals sharply along, all out-door botanical investi- 

 gation must cease. But if vegetation be hidden and 

 apparently dead, it is only to revive again ; and if our 

 investigations close with the year, they must revive 

 with another. December is indeed the RAMINTTDIAST 

 or BARE-BOUGH MONTH ; for we have watched the 

 budding verdant branches through a year of storm 

 and sunshine till they are denuded of every leaf. Yet 

 if we study their forms even now, and notice the 

 slightest of their sprays, incipient hopes yet appear, 



