242 
NATURE NOTES. 
transformed into diamond traceries — no, he preferred staying in 
bed and reading the latest novel. In a word, he took no trouble 
about the garden, and therefore never got to love it. It was 
a pretty picture to him — nothing more : not a beautiful living 
joyous reality. 
That a garden is as attractive in winter as in summer, no 
one would contend ; but we do maintain that it has, at that 
season, certain peculiar charms. To begin with, the deciduous 
trees, being bare of leaves, show the structure of their branches 
down to the tiniest twig, and the beauty here displayed is 
remarkable, especially in the case of the delicate tracery of the 
birch. The trunks themselves also command our notice. These 
are extremely picturesque, whether ribbed and knotted, and 
coated here and there with feathery grey-green lichen, or hidden 
with luxuriant wreaths of glossy ivy. But the evergreen trees 
are our special admiration. In the summer, amid all the 
luxuriant vegetation, we hardly noticed them, but now they 
reign without a rival, and remind us that they are faithful 
friends, who wear the same face in winter as in summer. “ O 
Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine Blatter ! ’’ 
There is the holly, with its dark glossy leaves and crimson 
fruit — a very king in dignity and strength ; the noble Scotch fir, 
the spruce, the massive yew, and the cypress. Then there are 
the laurels — somewhat formal perhaps, but bright in appearance, 
and forming a compact screen to break the force of cold winds 
and hide bare patches of ground ; the rhododendrons, showing 
clearly the promise of spring bloom ; the arbutus, with its lovely 
red berries, and other shrubs and trees of infinite variety. 
Then as to flowers. — We will not mention those that bloom 
in the green-house, for a green-house may be an appendage to a 
suburban villa, but, confining ourselves to outdoor flowers, we 
may say that there is hardly a period through the winter (except 
in the case of hard frost or deep snow) when these are entirely 
lacking. In mild seasons tea-roses bloom all through November, 
and we have often picked some good specimens (rather frozen 
perhaps) at Christmas. Then amongst purely winter flowers 
there are anemones — beautiful brilliant bits of colour, reminding 
one of the sunny Riviera — Czar violets, that a few sunny days 
will tempt into bloom, Christmas roses and winter cherries. By 
the end of January the snowdrop, the winter aconite, and the 
lovely Scilla .sibirica make their appearance ; primroses and 
forget-me-nots soon follow, and behold it is winter no longer ! 
“But,” someone will say, “ suppose there is a fall of snow ! ’’ 
“ Be it so,” we reply, “ that is just what we delight in ! ” The 
flowers are hidden for the time, but the whole garden presents 
a scene of the greatest beauty. The trees — especially those that 
are not deciduous — are clad in robes of diamond-strewn ermine, 
the lawn is a spotless velvet carpet, the bare wires of the garden 
arches are converted into exquisite carved trellis-work. It is 
a lovely transformation scene, evoked by the potent wand of 
