38 THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



curve, so that eacli formed as nearly as possible a half circle. These 

 semicircles sprang regularly from the trunk, from the ground Hue to 

 the summit of each tree, diminishiug in size regularly, and presenting 

 such a stiff, formal, artistic, and, in fact, artificial appearance as I 

 never before beheld in any production so completely natural as was 

 this. The trees looked to be gigantic productions in metal, as if 

 masterpieces of the mystical and mighty forges we read of in Ger- 

 man fable, as hid away somewhere in the recesses of the Hartz or 

 the Brocken. I likened them to colossal works in iron or bronze, which 

 had been left out because too large to be got within any building, 

 and which had been swaddled up in furs from northern latitudes to 

 prevent their corrosion by the weather. 



Having admired the araucarias, and the spruces, and the 

 deodaras, wbich last were by no means remarkable for beauty in 

 their snowy dress, for the snow hung about them in ugly patches, 

 I now felt a strange sense of some deficiency, and I actually cried 

 out at last, " AVhere are my pretty young birches ? where are my 

 little arbor vitas, that stood five feet high, all green and beau- 

 tiful but yesterday ? "Where my standard American willows ? 

 Ah! yes, and where the great aucubas that formed the rear- 

 line of the flower-border ? Where are a thousand other things 

 that I ought to see some token of amidst the snow ?" I 

 might have cried long enough ; for Tom had gone off" to make 

 ready for a day's shooting, and I had offended him by declaring it 

 infamously cruel and wicked to take birds at a disadvantage during 

 the snow ; and as for Ai-abella, who generally answers all my ques- 

 tions, she turned away from the window, called the wintry scene 

 "horrid," and went to join Aunt Hellaby in sleepy wool-work. So 

 as the walks had all been swept, I put on my goloshes, and a shawl 

 over my head, and went to see for myself. I found the gardener 

 looking for the trees with as much concern as myself. They 

 were not destroyed or swept away ; they were simply bent down to 

 the ground with the weight of snow, and the heads of birches and 

 American willows were actually frozen to the ground, so that to get 

 them up again seemed to me a matter of impossibility. But the 

 gardener assured me they would be none the worse for the prostra- 

 tion, and he purposed to leave them alone for the present. The out- 

 lines of all such trees as these were perceptible enough, for their 

 stems arched over the snow, like hoops put across a flower-bed when 

 it is intended to cover something over with mats. All the shrubs of 

 pliant nature were laid out on the ground. Arbor vitas and aucubas, 

 when discovered, looked like heaps of linen left carelessly here and 

 there; their branches were separated from the very root, and pressed 

 down lengthwise on the earth under a weight of snow which 

 appeared quite sufficient to crush them for ever. But as the gar- 

 dener again and again assured me that when spring came they would 

 look none the worse for having been so humbled, I took comfort, and 

 admired the wonders around me without any misgivings. 



I do not know whether this hasty and imperfect sketch of a 

 scene which I could not attempt to describe will be of any use or 

 interest to lovers of gardens, but I feel sure I can draw from the 



