The Wilderness 



perfume lavishly into the world. I think it is a much lovelier 

 tree than the lilac, for, while its colour is not so deep, the flowers 

 grow in much lighter, more feathery fashion, and the whole effect is 

 that of a mass of misty lace. While the blossoms are at their sweetest 

 the little green leaf-tips have been bursting through. They grow 

 swiftly from slender fingers to waving tassels, and then to open fans, 

 and by the time the flowers are finished the tree is dressed in a beautiful 

 fern-like foliage of glossy green. Nor do its charms end here. The 

 flowers have left behind them hundreds of small green fruits, which 

 grow and ripen, and by the time the autumn comes again and the leaves 

 begin to fall they are ready to provide a beautiful feast for the birds. 

 And so comes the white cedar's crowning charm. 



A tree without birds in its branches is like a room without books 

 on its shelves the birds are the crowning charm. The poet knew that 

 when he wrote ecstatically of 



A tree that may in summer wear 

 A nest of robins in her hair. 



My white cedar does not wear any nest in her hair, but each autumn her 

 charm is enhanced by the beautiful green oriole in her branches. 



In autumn the fat green berries have grown golden and juicy, 

 and the oriole comes to feast upon them. He really has no right to be 

 so near Sydney nowadays, for he is one of the larger birds, which have 

 been driven back by the advance of the city ; but somehow or other, 

 in the mysterious bird way, he learned of my white cedar, and each 

 year he comes to spend a month or so in the wilderness, feasting on 

 the berries, and in between meals filling the autumn day with his lovely, 

 clear ringing song. He is one of the lucky birds, whose voice matches 



