Winter i 39 



taken up and housed. Whatever may be protected by a mulch 

 of leaves, or straw, or sod, or by branches of evergreen, or by 

 twining herbaceous vines around or above it, so that it is not a 

 blot on the landscape, may , of course, remain. 



With this matter of protection met, through shelters that 

 are not an offense to the eye, the question of introducing some- 

 thing into the garden that will be a positive feature of winter 

 beauty, should be considered. There are shrubs innumerable 

 that have bright berries, and others with beautifully colored 

 bark — and all shrubbery is decorative, when well placed, even 

 out of leaf. Just the lacy mass of its bare branches against the 

 snow is charming, or their warm color against the browns of 

 vegetation generally, or against the deep tones of evergreens, 

 when these form the backgroimd. 



Masses of cornel give ruddy warmth to the comer where they 

 live; the black alder holds its bright red berries practically all 

 winter ; rugosa roses bear hips as large as French chestnuts that 

 are a lovely, translucent scarlet-orange; the purple barberry is 

 purple in branch, leaf and berry; the viburnums have fruits 

 that are scarlet, blue-black, and pink-and-duU-blue ; while the 

 old-fashioned snowberry and its twin, the Indian currant, are 

 familiar to everyone, with the fat white berries of the first, 

 btmched in odd sizes, offering a most attractive contrast to the 

 coral of the latter. But more decorative than all other fruits, 

 perhaps, are the berries of the corky euonymus, and its relatives 

 of the spindle tree family. These are contained in a capsule, 

 which bursts as the fruit ripens, rolling back to show the brighter 

 colored, or differently colored seeds within. The capsule is 

 usually a bright orange-scarlet ; the seed itself is black in one 

 variety, a deeper, brighter red than the capsule in some others, 

 and almost white in another. 



