January — Mistletoe. 4 7 



be preserved or lost in winter is one of the most curious 

 things about the local coloring of landscape. For ex- 

 ample, in the case of rushes, the green remains vividly 

 where there is water, except at the tops of the blades, 

 which are tipped with yellow ; but in drier places the 

 whole rush is pale yellow, often giving most brilliant 

 and effective white lines, even when there is no sun- 

 shine to relieve them. Then you have the peculiar 

 green of the mistletoe, often existing in such quantities 

 as to give at a little distance quite a summer-like 

 appearance to the tree it has chosen to establish itself 

 upon. Seen nearer, the green is made perceptibly less 

 powerful by the wax-like berries, which, being of a very 

 pale greenish white, neither intensify the green by con- 

 trast, as scarlet would have done, nor yet sustain it by 

 a continuation of its own color. The mistletoe is, to 

 my taste, one of the most beautiful plants we have ; and 

 I like its coloring exceedingly, both because the hue of 

 the leaves is not a vulgar green, and also because the 

 fruit has the most exquisite delicacy of hue, in such 

 perfect harmony with the leafage, that it seems tinted 

 by -a faint reflection. 



There is a great deal of pleasant green in winter, due 

 to the delicate minute mosses that often cover the bark 

 of certain trees ; as for instance, the quince-tree and the 

 acacia. In some such cases the bark seems positively 

 painted, and is quite bright in the wintry sunshine. Such 

 moss-painted trunks and branches are a great resource 

 when there happens to be holly in the foreground, which 

 is dangerous from its isolation and the intensity of its 



