EVEBGREEN BEAUTY. 81 



like veins and veinlets, with white downy hairs. It 

 is this hair which gives the white and mealy or 

 cottony appearance to the underside of the leaf 

 of the Primrose. The spaces between the veins 

 and veinlets, concave on the underside of the leaf 

 are convex on the upper side, and serve to give 

 its crumpled appearance to the upper surface of 

 the leaf. The down glistens as the light catches 

 it. Down is also spread along the upper side 

 of the midstem, and shorter and smaller downy 

 hairs are spread upon the upper leafy side. Even 

 a tiny, incipient leaf of Primrose, no more than 

 three-quarters of an inch long, is, in mid-Winter, 

 a thing of beauty. 



Too wide in its wealth of verdancy is the world 

 of wintry greenness to have detailed mention in 

 these pages. How many of the plants that in 

 spring and summer display the gorgeousness 

 of blossom have persistent foliage of freshest 

 green during the ' dead ' season, only those 

 know who know the wintry lanes and meads and 

 moors and woods ; and, descending to the world 

 of cryptogamic vegetation, there are regions on 

 regions clothed with graceful ferns and moss and 



G 



