124 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



always seems to me a wonderful thing that in this 

 month, when we are doing all we can to protect our 

 favourites from the bitter frosts which we know will 

 be with us shortly, nature is clothing many plants 

 with young fresh leaves which must be, as we suppose, 

 more or less tender. This is most seen in many of the 

 herbaceous plants, which already have as many radical 

 leaves as they ever will have, but it is seen also in 

 many shrubs; and it is to me very remarkable that 

 some tender shrubs put out their young leaves, while 

 the hardier ones show no such signs of returning life. 

 For instance, the beautiful fuchsia gooseberry (Ribes 

 speciosum), from California and Mexico, is now showing 

 its young green leaves, while our own hardy gooseberry 

 shows none. There are many such instances, and I 

 suppose in the Eibes, and probably in all the others, 

 this early leafing is a reminiscence of the habits of the 

 plants in their native countries. Then the daffodils are 

 pushing their way through the ground ; the buds of the 

 Christmas roses are well formed ; the catkins of the hazel 

 are fairly abundant, and those of the Garrya are 

 lengthening every day ; while it is easy to find prim- 

 roses in flower in many places, but I always suppose 

 those to be the late flowering or double-flowering 

 specimens of the present year, and not the premature 

 flowers of next spring however, they are very welcome. 



