THE KINDLING BEECH 



If a name can be given to the beech tree at this time 

 before the emerald green is really beginning, flesh 

 colour is as good as any. There is, however, colour 

 clear enough if we come right up to the tree. Each 

 swelling bud is scaled in gold and amber, with a 

 stain of unmistakable rose in one part, and the tip 

 showing an immature green. What is the cause of 

 this small dab of bright rose on the unfolding bud 

 of the beech ? It is, I think, quite invariable. 



The kindling effect of new life at this season is 

 not seen on the beech tree alone. It is noticeable 

 about every wood and spinney, where the green has 

 not yet prevailed. Some of the choicest of spring 

 landscapes are where the coppices are partly kindling 

 with their oaks, beeches, and more backward trees 

 and underwoods, and partly touched by the mist of 

 birch and larch green. Where in the background, 

 raised high above these woods, and heavy against 

 the horizon, there is a sloping, dark band of pines, 

 the effect is magnificent. Such landscapes are often 

 seen in sandy, heathery districts where pine and birch 

 trees grow in abundance. 



Of lowlier things in hedgerow and wood, the 

 second set of spring flowers is beginning to make 

 some show. The hedge garlic, which a humble 

 generation of villagers used for its salads and sauces, 

 has begun to blossom, and patches of the greater 

 stitchwort are almost in full bloom. The lady's 

 smock is beginning on May n last year I saw 

 long sheets of its pale lilac in a spinney, the flowers 

 so extraordinarily thick in places that they quite 



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