JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



No. 4. Vol. VI. March 1st, 1895. 



£n early V/inter's ^troll. 



By J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 



The south-west wind brings up the vapour that gives a misty 

 appearance to tlie late autumn and winter sun which yet radiates a con- 

 siderable warmth that adds pleasure and comfort to an outdoor stroll. 

 The bracken lies here dead and beaten, there, where it has been less 

 exposed under the sturdy oaks which are loth to part with the last 

 remnants of their foliage, in the last golden decay of early winter. 

 Here and there, too, the hawthorns stand out black and grim against the 

 pale and fitful blue of the November sky, whilst great masses of snowy 

 cumulus fade in their lower depths to the watery-grey tint which tells 

 of water ready to be precij^itated almost without notice at this uncertain 

 season. The young gorse attempts to adorn itself with its spring 

 beauties and bears an occasional cluster of golden bloom. The tall 

 herbaceous plants by the hedgeside now brilliant with the red leaves 

 of the bramble which forms a magnificent garland, are bedraggled and 

 dying, and, although — 



" The banks that wore a smiling green, 

 Bewail their flowery beauties dead" — 



yet the marvellous autumnal beauties of the fungi arising from the 

 dead ashes of twig and leaf and root, rival in many ways the fairest 

 beauties of summer. Magnificently vivid is this after-glow of Nature's 

 brilliance — palest yellow and delicately tinted heliotrope, charming blue, 

 brightest orange, or a broad table of blood-red crimson gi-OAving from 

 the old oak-stump yonder. Brilliant, but fleeting is their little day. 

 Eapidly they pass back to the decay and putrescence which gave 

 them birth. 



The vistas of the oak trees in the park attract the entomologist 

 in these late autumn days. They stretch away over the rising ground 

 in masses of fading gold until lost in the grey of the horizon. 

 With trowel and chisel, and a piece of macintosh to sit or kneel upon, 

 he sets forth to pursue his peaceful avocation. What nooks and 

 crannies there are at the surface where an oak-tree enters the ground I 

 What rugosities and scarred seams, what hiding-places and secret 

 nooks the rough bark i)resents ! Wliat cunning is required to find 

 out all the entomological mysteries hidden there, what patience to 

 explore the crannies which one meets ! 



