THROUGH THE YEAR 37 



ash, and sallow, sets a wonderful sheet of green 

 against the wonderful sheet of sky blue and white 

 cumulus cloud. 



But May has entered at least on its prime before 

 the oaks are true green. In whatever light we look 

 at the oaks about the middle of the month, they are 

 more yellow than green. I have written of the 

 New Forest oaks about Sway and Brockenhurst 

 appearing spurge-yellow, in some lights even prim- 

 rose-yellow, a little way off ; and now I am confirmed 

 in the view that yellow, in sun and shade alike, is 

 their ruling colour. The blossoms of the oaks are 

 distinctly yellow, even when one views them closely 

 and in detail. But so, too, is the leaf before it is 

 quite full-grown. 



The oak wood at first sets a sheet of yellow, a little 

 later it sets a sheet of green, against the blue and 

 white skies of the prime of May. 



Here and there among the yellow trees is a brown 

 tree, but this colour is rarer ; on the face of a good- 

 sized oak wood, as seen from the outside, one will 

 scarcely find half a dozen trees that are more brown 

 than yellow. 



BLACKCAPS IN ENGLAND, AFRICA, ITALY 



The prime of May is too near the zenith of the 

 year the whole thing is so soon over ! It is clean 

 gone ere I have time to realise it. We suddenly 

 wake to the splendour and immense vigour of the 

 thing one morning when that wild whistle of the 

 blackcap is fairly ringing out of the high trees. 



