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AUTUMN AND WINTER 



hill-top pines. Some steep slopes of the downs are as thickly 

 dappled with juniper-bushes as a mackerel sky with clouds ; 

 and when the white sheep go roaming among their dark and 

 motionless heads, they appear from a distance like clouds 

 fallen among them. Junipers in sheltered places form tall 

 bushes of graceful and curious outline, sometimes with the 

 columnar growth of the cypress, and sometimes recalling the 

 freakish shapes of the clipped yews in old-fashioned gardens. 

 The dark-green needles have a hoary bloom, especially when 



JUNIPER-TREES ON THE CHALK DOWN 



young, which gives a peculiar grace and freshness to the 

 foliage ; and the delicate contrast of colours is heightened 

 by the silver lichens studding the stringy, red bark. The 

 berries remain green for the first year, and then turn slaty- 

 blue, with a grey bloom like that of the young foliage. 

 Junipers are seldom found except on ancient turf that has 

 never been disturbed with spade or plough. They are relics 

 of primeval nature, rare and very interesting in a land where 

 man's traces are so deeply graven. 



The box-tree is one of the scarcest of wild British ever- 

 greens, though it is so familiar in gardens. It is now con- 

 fined in a wild state to a few woods on chalk or oolitic 

 limestone, such as the well-known groves at Box Hill in the 



