BY FRANCIS GEORGE HEATH, EDITOR OF THE NEW EDITION OF GILPIN'S FOREST SCENERY;' AUTHOR OF ་ 'AUTUMNAL LEAVES,' ' SYLVAN SPRING,' 'OUR WOODLAND TREES,' THE FERN WORLD,' HE FERN PORTFOLIO,' THE FERN PARADISE,' WHERE TO FIND FERNS,' WITH SEVENTY ILLUSTRATIONS ENGRAVED BY JAMES D. COUPER. LONDON: KEGAN PAUL TRENCH, & CO., 1, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1886. the late Lord Beaconsfield, in December, 1880, a few months only before his death, wrote to the Author of this volume. In the same letter the distinguished statesman and littérateur, turning from the subject with which he had prefaced his communication, remarked: With regard to trees, I passed part of my youth in the shade of Burnham Beeches, and have now the happiness of living amid my own "green retreats." To the writer's mind, therefore, for the moment, it was the especial verdancy of spring and summer which suggested the picture of sylvan scenery ;' and sylvan scenery, to the popular mind, is an expression which mostly implies the leafiness of the seasons that precede the fall. Yet the ancient worship of trees must rather have been suggested by the stern wintry aspect of the monarchs of the woods, than by the softer appearance of their summer clothing-for the strength and power and grandeur, if the idea may be allowed, of the tree-form would be more conspicuous when divested of foliage. Similarly the grandeur and solemnity of the forest would more powerfully affect the feelings when the great trunks and huge limbs of the sylvan giants stood out clearly defined against the wintry sky. The sacred hunt' for the venerated Mistletoe was a winter rite-for that curious parasitic evergreen could not have been discovered amongst the summer mass of green leaves; and the sacred fire' of the Druids, communicated from the burning Yule-log, |