FEBRUARY 81 



spiny little leaves, allows the eye to penetrate uncon- 

 sciously a little way into the mass, so that one sees as 

 much tender shadow as actual leaf-surface, and this is 

 probably the cause of the wonderfully delicate and, so 

 to speak, intangible quality of colouring. Then, again, 

 where there is a hollow place in a bush, or group, showing 

 a cluster of half-dead stems, at first one cannot tell 

 what the colour is, tiU with half-shut eyes one becomes 

 aware of a dusky and yet luminous purple-grey. 



The merits of the Juniper are not yet done with, 

 for throughout the winter (the time of growth of moss 

 and lichen) the rugged-barked old stems are clothed 

 with loveliest pale-green growths of a silvery quality. 

 Standing before it, and trying to put the colour into 

 words, one repeats, again and again, pale-green silver — 

 palest silvery green ! Where the lichen is old and 

 dead it is greyer ; every now and then there is a touch 

 of the orange kind, and a little of the branched stag- 

 horn pattern so common on the heathy ground. Here 

 and there, as the trunk or branch is increasing in 

 girth, the silvery, lichen-clad, rough outer bark has 

 parted, and shows the smooth, dark-red inner bark; 

 the outer covering still clinging over the opening, and 

 looking like grey ribands slightly interlaced. Many 

 another kind of tree-stem is beautiful in its winter 

 dress, but it is difficult to find any so full of varied 

 beauty and interest as that of the Juniper; it is one 

 of the yearly feasts that never fails to delight and 

 satisfy. 



