186 GARDENS OF ENGLAND 



leafing trees have shed their foliage, and reveal 

 themselves in the infinite beauty and elegance of 

 their gracious structure. Despoiled of their green 

 vestments they stand unveiled, these trees that 

 summer clothes with emerald, while the dark ever- 

 greens, holly, yew, and cedar, remain shrouded 

 in their sombre raiment, closely guarding their 

 secrets. The beech, most beautifiil of all trees 

 when the setting sun shines through the diaphanous 

 green of its young leaves margined with sUky floss, 

 is almost equally lovely when, bare of foliage, the 

 intricate tracery of its countless branchlets, edged 

 with silver, gleams against a primrose sky ; the tall 

 poplar's delicate framework towers aspiringly aloft ; 

 the oaks, in their bare branches, show forth the 

 inflexible strength of their slow growth and firm 

 grain; and the ash, with blunt-tipped shoots, 

 spreads wide its naked arms. Portugal laurel, 

 holly, and ivy shrouding the branches of a dying 

 tree, with their grace of form and delicate outline, 

 have their beauty intensified by the crystal edgmg 

 of their leaves which gleams in the sun's clear 

 gold. 



In the winter, flowers of the open air are so few 

 and so far between that any which brighten that 

 inclement season with their blossoms are doubly 



