136 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



apple, pear and plum-trees are also conspicu- 

 ous. In the cultivated varieties of these trees 

 — which all belong to the rose family, and this 

 suggests again the beauty of the wild roses — 

 where the production of large quantities of fruit 

 is the aim of the gardener, the flowers are 

 inevitably to be seen in great profusion ; and 

 the orchard, in the flowering-time, becomes as 

 much a fairyland of beauty as the garden or 

 woodland when covered with hoar-frost, and 

 like the winter fairyland, that of the spring-time 

 needs blue sky and bright sunshine to show it 

 at its best. Whole tracts of country, under 

 these conditions, become exquisitely beautiful. 

 There are rich harmonies of colour of which the 

 mere transcript would suffice to make a picture. 

 Among the larger trees, when the new 

 leafage is coming to maturity, it is not always 

 so. In the very early spring, when the open- 

 ing leaf-buds give a mere flush of warm colour 

 to the deciduous trees in the woods, there is 

 perfect harmony between them and the dark 

 tones of the evergreens. But, later, when 

 some trees are a vivid green, and others are 

 still bare, we have the crude elements of an 

 unfinished picture. 



