20 WOOD AND GARDEN 



fronds of withered bracken; tlie bracken less beaten 

 down than usual, for the winter has been without 

 snow ; only where the soil is deeper, and the fern has 

 grown more tall and rank, it has fallen into thick, 

 almost felted masses, and the stalks all lying one way 

 make the heaps look like lumps of fallen thatch. The 

 bramble leaves — last year's leaves, which are held all 

 the winter — are of a dark, blackish-bronze colour, or 

 nearly red where they have seen the sun. Age seems 

 to give them a sort of hard surface and enough of a 

 polish to reflect the sky ; the young leaves that will 

 come next month are almost woolly at first. Grassy 

 tufts show only bleached bents, so tightly matted that 

 one wonders how the delicate young blades will be 

 able to spear through. Ivy-berries, hanging in thick 

 clusters, are still in beauty; they are so heavy that 

 they weigh down the branches. There is a peculiar 

 beauty in the form and veining of the plain-shaped 

 leaves belonging to the mature or flowering state that 

 the plant reaches when it can no longer climb, whether 

 on a wall six feet high or on the battlements of a 

 castle. Cuttings grown from such portions retain this 

 habit, and form densely-flowering bushes of compact 

 shape. 



Beautiful colouring is now to be seen in many of 

 the plants whose leaves do not die down in winter. 

 Foremost amongst these is the Foam-flower (Tiarella 

 cordifolia). Its leaves, now lying on the ground, 

 show bright colouring, inclining to scarlet, crimson, 



