MAY 61 



sound is mute ; strike a Scotch fir, and it is a note of 

 music. 



In tlie copse are some prosperous patches of the 

 beautiful North American Wood-lily (Trillium grandi- 

 florum). It likes a bed of deep leaf-soil on levels or 

 cool slopes in woodland, where its large white flowers 

 and whorls of handsome leaves look quite at home. 

 Beyond it are widely spreading patches of Solomon's 

 Seal and tufts of the Wood-rush (Zuzula sylvatica), 

 showing by their happy vigour how well they like 

 their places, while the natural woodland carpet of moss 

 and dead leaves puts the whole together. Higher in 

 the copse the path runs through stretches of the pretty 

 little Smilacina lifolia, and the ground beyond this is 

 a thick bed of Whortleberry, filling all the upper part 

 of the wood under oak and birch and Scotch fir. The 

 little flower-bells of the Whortleberry have already 

 given place to the just-formed fruit, which will ripen 

 in July, and be a fine feast for the blackbirds. 



Other parts of the copse, where there was no Heath 

 or Whortleberry, were planted thinly with the large 

 Lily of the Valley. It has spread and increased and 

 become broad sheets of leaf and bloom, from which 

 thousands of flowers can be gathered without making 

 gaps, or showing that any have been removed ; when 

 the bloom is over the leaves still stand in handsome 

 masses till they are hidden by the fast-growing bracken. 

 They do not hurt each other, as it seems that the Lily 

 of the Valley, having the roots running just under- 



