January The Quince-tree. 37 



No tree in January is so variously rich in color as 

 the quince-tree. The branches (so wonderfully tortuous 

 and interlaced) are tinted of a summer-like green 

 painted, I may say, by Nature with the tiniest of her 

 green mosses ; whereas the leaves, of which very many 

 are still Remarkably perfect in form, are of a rich red 

 brown, and the under side is of a pale golden brown, 

 with a little down remaining. The most decayed leaves 

 are a good deal darker. Now, although the oak, beech, 

 or hornbeam, still retain their leaves in the following 

 year, they offer but little variety of hue ; and though a 

 sprig of oak might instruct and occupy a designer, the 

 quince-tree would occupy a colorist. So, indeed, would 

 the common bramble, with its crimson or purple stalk 

 and leaves, often still retaining a perfectly fresh green, 

 others being of a dark, ochrous red, but still very perfect 

 in their form. 



VIII. 



Deschanel's description of an English Landscape Painter Botany and 

 Art An Effect in January The Harmony of Gray and Gold 

 How Diaz would have given it Sunset-light on Dead Foliage 

 Use of Scientific Knowledge The Microscope Use of a Nomencla- 

 ture Drawing Plants Jules Jacquemart's way of Drawing Plants 

 Memoranda Colors of the Wintry Landscape Fanaticism about 

 Nature Eglantine The rich green of Broom Woods in Mass 

 Edges of Woods Birches Lichen. 



DESCHANEL, in his clever and amusing ' Essai 

 de Critique naturelle,' gives a description of an 

 English landscape-painter addicted to botanical study ; 



