258 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



but only planted in orchards or walkes for the shadowe 

 sake/' Chaucer speaks of us as " rare exotics " in the four- 

 teenth century, and Gerard, as strangers in England, 

 growing "only in the walkes and places of pleasure of 

 noblemen, making a beautiful appearance in bloome, and 

 affording much pabulum for bees, smelling, also, strongly 

 of honey." 



Doubtless we are noble trees. Our spring tints are 

 rich, glowing, and harmonious. In summer our deep 

 green accords well with our grand and massive foliage ; 

 and the brown and somewhat dingy red of our autumnal 

 foliage contrasts with the deeper and glowing tints of the 

 poplar and the beech, the oak and the elm, and not uiifre- 

 quently heightens their effect. 



We grow well in Scotland, and receive wherever growing 

 a just meed of approbation. You may find us uniformly 

 beside old aristocratic residences, having been much planted 

 in former times, when the long peace that subsisted between 

 France and Scotland occasioned our introduction from the 



