HEATHY PATHS 15 



Nothing is pleasanter in woodland than broad, 

 grassy ways, well enough levelled to insure safety to 

 an unheeding walker. In early spring, before the 

 grass has grown any height, here is the place where 

 Daffodils can best be seen and enjoyed, some in the 

 clear grass and some running back in wide drifts into 

 any side opening of the wood. If the grass is cut in 

 June, when the Daffodil foliage is ripe, and again 

 early in September, these two mowings will suffice 

 for the year. 



In many woody places where shade is fairly thick, 

 if there is any grass it will probably be full of moss. 

 No path-carpet is more beautiful than a mossy one ; 

 indeed, where grass walks from the garden pass into 

 woodland, the mossy character so sympathetic to the 

 wood should be treasured, and the moss should not 

 be scratched out with iron rakes. Often in the 

 lawn proper a mixture of moss and grass is desirable, 

 though one has been taught that all moss is hateful. 

 In such places, though it may be well to check 

 it by raking out every four or five years, it should 

 by no means be destroyed, for in the lawn spaces 

 adjoining trees or woodland the moss is right and 

 harmonious. 



There are paths for the garden and paths for the 

 wood. A mistaken zeal that would insist on the 

 trimness of the straight-edged garden walk in wood- 

 land or wild is just as much misplaced as if by 

 slothful oversight an accumulation of dead leaves 

 or other debris of natural decay were permitted to 

 remain in the region of formal terrace or parterre. 



