XXXII Spring Nooks in Winter 



WINTER landscapes hold many corners which give 

 shelter to plants and birds in the colder weather, 

 and foster the earliest spring. Many plants in 

 deep lanes and wayside hollows do not entirely 

 cease their growth like those in the wind-swept 

 fields and woodlands around them. Primrose and 

 foxglove plants keep a cluster of small green leaves 

 at the core, which bud in the damps of autumn and 

 never lose the tint and freshness of youth until 

 they swell into the full foliage of spring. Their 

 expansion is almost imperceptible for many weeks 

 of winter, unless the weather becomes unnaturally 

 mild ; but they do not lose the ground they have 

 gained, or succumb to any increase of cold weather, 

 except when they have been forced into too swift 

 development by treacherous warmth. In such 

 spots vegetation seems not completely to lose 

 consciousness, but to drowse through the winter 

 in a half-stirred slumber, like the field-mouse in its 

 own warm tangle. There is a visible promise of 

 awakening in these young green leaves which is 

 lacking in the ordinary winter landscapes, where it 

 often seems that only an actual miracle can bring 

 spring ; and they gain attraction from this contrast 

 with the frosty fields. 



The number of plants which seem struggling to 



297 



