TREES ABOUT TOWN 179 



the rushes would be hastily hauled out and hurled away 

 with execrations ! 



Besides the greater beauty of English trees, shrubs, 

 and plants, they also attract the birds, without which the 

 grandest plantation is a vacancy, and another interest, 

 too, arises from watching the progress of their growth and 

 the advance of the season. Our own trees and shrubs 

 literally keep pace with the stars which shine in our 

 northern skies. An astronomical floral almanack might 

 almost be constructed, showing how, as the constellations 

 marched on by night, the buds and leaves and flowers 

 appeared by day. 



The lower that brilliant Sirius sinks in the western sky 

 after ruling the winter heavens, and the higher that red 

 Arcturus rises, so the buds thicken, open, and bloom. 

 When the Pleiades begin to rise in the early evening, 

 the leaves are turning colour, and the seed vessels of the 

 flowers take the place of the petals. The coincidences 

 of floral and bird life, and of these with the movements 

 of the heavens, impart a sense of breadth to their ob- 

 servation. 



It is not only the violet or the anemone, there are the 

 birds coming from immense distances to enjoy the sum- 

 mer with us ; there are the stars appearing in succession, 

 so that the most distant of objects seems brought into 

 connection with the nearest, and the world is made one. 

 The sharp distinction, the line artificially drawn between 

 things, quite disappears when they are thus associated. 



Birds, as just remarked, are attracted by our own trees 

 and shrubs. Oaks are favourites with rooks and wood- 

 pigeons ; blackbirds whistle in them in spring ; if there 

 is a pheasant about in autumn he is sure to come under 

 the oak \ jays visit them. Elms are resorted to by most 

 of the larger birds. Ash plantations attract wood-pigeons 



