98 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



whole range of botanical science I know of no sub- 

 ject which is so fascinating and so deeply interesting 

 as the study of seeds, technically, I believe, called 

 carpology ; and at no time of the year can it be so 

 pleasantly followed up as in the month of September, 

 for the garden is full now of seed-vessels of all sorts, 

 many of them highly ornamental, and all more or less 

 full of interest. I pass by the rowans and the haw- 

 thorns, though they are now in great beauty, but I 

 class them more among the wild trees of the hedge- 

 rows. In the garden the most ornamental tree is 

 the large-leaved spindle-tree {Euonyimis latifolius) when 

 covered with its brilliant scarlet fruit. Our own wild 

 spindle-tree is a very pretty tree in fruit, but the fruit 

 is small and dull in colour compared with the large- 

 leaved species. I wonder this tree is not more 

 common. Though a native of the south of Europe, it 

 is quite hardy, and was known and apparently grown 

 by Gerard and Parkinson, but it is very seldom seen. 

 The scarlet fruit opens in four parts, and shows the 

 orange-scarlet seeds inside. When thus open it bears 

 a very close resemblance to the biretta, and it has thus 

 obtained its French name of lonnet de pretre, its 

 Spanish name of honeie de clerigo, and its Portuguese 

 name of birette de clerigo. There is a variety with 

 white seeds which is worth growing, but not so hand- 



