HERBS 171 



manner, and would enclose a goodly space. Or in the 

 boughs above, a savage's tree-hut might be built, and 

 yet scarcely be seen. 



My roaming and uncertain steps next bring me under 

 a plane, and I am forced to admire it; I do not like 

 planes, but this is so straight of trunk, so vast of size, 

 and so immense of height that I cannot choose but look 

 up into it. A jackdaw, perched on an upper bough, 

 makes off as I glance up. But the trees constantly aiford 

 unexpected pleasure ; you wander among the timber of 

 the world, now under the shadow of the trees which 

 the Red Indian haunts, now by those which grow on 

 Himalayan slopes. The interest lies in the fact that 

 they are trees, not shrubs or mere saplings, but timber 

 trees which cast a broad shadow. 



So great is their variety and number that it is not 

 always easy to find an oak or an elm ; there are plenty, 

 but they are often lost in the foreign forest. Yet every 

 English shrub and bush is here ; the hawthorn, the dog- 

 wood, the wayfaring tree, gorse and broom, and here is 

 a round plot of heather. Weary at last, I rest again 

 near the Herbaceous Ground, as the sun declines and 

 the shadows lengthen. 



As evening draws on, the whistling of blackbirds and 

 the song of thrushes seem to come from everywhere 

 around. The trees are full of them. Every few moments 

 a blackbird passes over> flying at some height, from the 

 villa gardens and the orchards without. The song in- 

 creases j the mellow whistling is without intermission ; 

 but the shadow has nearly reached the wall, and I 

 must go. 



