hey are not sub-tropical trees, as we are
apt to think, but fairly hardy, and the Laurel Magnolia, so well known
as a beautiful covering for a south wall, is seldom enough seen in
standard form. Yet it is one of the most stately of evergreen trees, and
it would be hard to find one more worthy of a good position, sheltered
from north and easterly winds. The whole outline of the tree is noble,
with its broad, shining, russet-backed leaves, a delight to look upon in
winter--nor is it shy, when full-grown, of bearing in late summer its
scented ivory-white lily-cups. It is too much, however, to expect the
lovely-sculptured, crimson-flushed cones, which in warmer climates than
ours open about November to disclose their hanging scarlet seeds. Some
of the deciduous Magnolias, too, such as the fine Chinese Yulan (_M.
conspicua_) and the bushy white-flowered Japanese species (_M.
stellata_), are full of interest, even while lifeless. All through the
winter we may watch the gradual filling out of the hairy, conical
flower-bracts, until at length, in very early spring, the impatient buds
can contain themselves no longer, and all too soon, sometimes, push them
off altogether that they may creep out of their prison bands.

Every one has his private calendar, and reckons the seasons by a
computation of his own, but we may safely say that four long months, if
no more, separate the falling of the leaf from its coming again.
Perhaps we ought not to include Magnolias amongst hibernal flowers,
though the trees are often white with blossom before the Larch is green;
but the list of shrubs which bloom, or are bright with coloured fruit
during those four months, would surprise most people who think of winter
only as the dead season. The boughs of Sea Buckthorn are loaded with
orange berries. Clusters of scarlet peep out of the fresh green of the
Skimmia bushes and, so long as the birds do not find them out,
_Pernettya_ carries a crop of purple and crimson and pink fruit more
showy than the modest white flowers of summer. When November days are
growing dark, _Coronilla_, in sheltered spots, puts forth its pale
clustering yellow flowers. Winter Jasmine, if the flowering branches are
not ruthlessly pruned away in autumn, covers its long green shoots with
golden stars. The evergreen Clematis (_C. calycina_) is never happier
than when clinging to some terrace balustrade where it may have a little
kindly shelter, which it repays by wreathing the sto