108 NATURE NEAR LONDON. 



laurels, cedar deodaras, various evergreens, rhodo- 

 dendrons, planes. How tarne and insignificant are 

 these compared with the oak ! Thrice a year the oaks 

 become beautiful in a different way. 



In spring the opening buds give the tree a ruddy 

 hue ; in summer the great head of green is not to be 

 surpassed; in autumn, with the falling leaf and 

 acorn, they appear buff and brown. The nobility of 

 the oak casts the pitiful laurel into utter insignificance. 

 With elms it is the same; they are reddish with 

 flower and bud very early in the year, the fresh leaf 

 is a tender green ; in autumn they are sometimes one 

 mass of yellow. 



Ashes change from almost black to a light green, 

 then a deeper green, and again light green and 

 yellow. Where is the foreign evergreen in the com- 

 petition ? Put side by side, competition is out of 

 the question : you have only to get an artist to 

 paint the oak in its three phases to see this. There 

 is less to be said against the deodara than the rest, 

 as it is a graceful tree ; but it is not English in any 

 sense. 



The point, however, is that the foreigners oust the 

 English altogether. Let the cedar and the laurel, 

 and the whole host of invading evergreens, be put 

 aside by themselves, in a separate and detached 

 shrubbery, maintained for the purpose of exhibiting 

 strange growths. Let them not crowd the lovely 

 English trees out of the place. Planes are much 

 planted now, with ill effect ; the blotches where the 

 bark peels, the leaves which lie on the sward like 

 brown leather, the branches wide apart and giving 



