COLOURS OF TREES. 



101 



haye come unexpectedly on a fine labnrnnm or thorn in 

 blossom partially concealed in a secluded wood, or over- 

 hanging tlie bend of a remote stream, and may have re- 

 ceived from it an impression wMcb has not yet passed 

 away. We need scarcely point out the rich effects pro- 

 duced at times by the snowy flowers of the wild cherry 

 and sloe, by the creamy bloom of the hawthorn and bird- 

 cherry, and the more varying pink and white of the wild 

 apple and the horse-chestnut. Then there is the delicate 

 pale-yellow of the flowers of the lime and Spanish chest- 

 nut later in the season. Among the underwoods we have 

 the brilliant yeUow of the elegant mahonias in spring, 

 and iu June the lavish purple of the Pontic rhododen- 

 dron, one of the hardiest and best of aU shrubs for 

 making close and tangled thickets in woods. We do 

 not mean that the chromatic efiects of a flower-garden 

 should be by artificial means elaborated in a park or 

 forest ; but there is no want of briUiant tints even in 

 the wildness of nature, as the common furze and broom 

 amply testify; and the moderate and unobtrusive em- 

 ployment of the brighter hues of blossom in the external 

 grounds is sure to please. 



Even the leafless branches of shrubs and trees afibrd 

 an available element of colour. We might point out 

 the dog- wood with its crimson twigs, and the azerole 

 thorn with its silvery branches : these, indeed, belong 

 chiefly to shrubbery or pleasure-ground. But the larch 

 with its light-brown spray, the birch with its dark twigs 

 and snowy stems, and the oak itself with its varieties of 

 russet, green, grey, and brown, are examples of daUy 

 occurrence in the woods. We believe that these hues 

 in deciduous trees, both intrinsically and as contrasted 

 with the brighter evergreens, are a great, though often 



