JANUARY 9 



upward from the ground, in the case of young trees 

 of about seven to nine inches diameter, the bark is 

 dark in colour, and lies in thick and extremely rugged 

 upright ridges, contrasting strongly with the smooth 

 white skin above. Where the two join, the smooth 

 bark is parted in upright slashes, through which the 

 dark, rough bark seems to swell up, reminding one 

 forcibly of some of the old fifteetith-century German 

 costumes, where a dark velvet is arranged to rise in 

 crumpled folds through slashings in white satin. In 

 the stems of older birches the rough bark rises much 

 higher up the trunk and becomes clothed with delicate 

 grey-green lichen. 



The nut- walk was planted twelve years ago. There 

 are two rows each side, one row four feet behind the 

 other, and the nuts are ten feet apart in the rows. 

 They are planted zigzag, those in the back rows show- 

 ing between the front ones. As the two inner rows 

 are thirteen feet apart measuring across the path, it 

 leaves a shady border on each side, with deeper bays 

 between the nearer trees. Lent Hellebores fill one' 

 border from end to end; the other is planted with 

 the Corsican and the native kinds, so that throughout 

 February and March there is a complete bit of garden 

 of one kind of plant in fiiU beauty of flower and 

 foliage. 



The nut-trees have grown into such thick clumps 

 that now there must be a vigorous thinning. Each 

 stool has from eight to twelve main stems, the largest 



