60 WOOD AND GARDEN 



The pretty little Woodruff is in flower ; what scent 

 is so delicate as that of its leaves ? They are almost 

 sweeter when dried, each little whorl by itself, with the 

 stalk cut closely away above and below. It is a plea- 

 sant surprise to come upon these fragrant little stars 

 between the leaves of a book. The whole plant revives 

 memories of rambles in Bavarian woodlands, and of Mai- 

 trank, that best of the " cup " tribe of pleasant drinks, 

 whose flavour is borrowed from its flowering tips. 



In the first week in May oak-timber is being felled. 

 The wood is handsomer, from showing the grain better, 

 when it is felled in the winter, but it is delayed till 

 now because of the value of the bark for tanning, and 

 just now the fast-rising sap makes the bark strip easily. 

 A heavy fall is taking place in the fringes of a large 

 wood of old Scotch fir. Where the oaks grow there is 

 a blue carpet of Avild Hyacinth ; the pathway is a 

 slightly hollowed lane, so that the whole sheet of 

 flower right and left is nearly on a level with the eye, 

 and looks like solid pools of blue. The oaks not yet 

 felled are putting forth their leaves of golden bronze. 

 The song of the nightingale and the ring of the wood- 

 man's axe gain a rich musical quality from the great 

 fir wood. Why a wood of Scotch fir has this wonder- 

 ful property of a kind of musical reverberation I do not 

 know ; but so it is. Any sound that occurs within it 

 is, on a lesser scale, like a sound in a cathedral. The 

 tree itself when struck gives a musical note. Strike 

 an oak or an elm on the trunk with a stick, and the 



