ne-work with
garlands of finely-cut bronzed foliage, hung with creamy freckled bells.
More than one kind of hardy Heath, if grown in spreading masses, will
deck the garden with sheets of colour the whole winter through.

The Chinese Honeysuckle (_L. Standishii_) arrays itself in its fragile
white flowers as early as January. Witch Hazels hang their bare branches
with twisted petals of gold or amber or, sometimes (as in _Hamamelis
zuccariniana_), borrow the pale-green tint of the under wing of a
brimstone butterfly. Soon after Christmas, Mezereon flushes into rosy
purple, and bushes of Winter-sweet (_Chimonanthus fragrans_),
independent of a wall (as few people know), will breathe out its perfume
from leafless branches studded over with waxen-yellow flowers. It is
strange how many of these winter-blooming plants keep their leaves well
out of harm's way, brave as their flowers may be. But so it is, and so
we learn that if we would gain their fullest winter beauty, we must
group them with evergreen shrubs as foil or background.

And what store there is of these to choose from, not green only, but
colour-tinged--_Berberis_ of many kinds, the shining ordered leaf-rows
of _Azara_, the purple tints of _Mahonia_ and _Gaultheria_, the bronze
of _Andromeda_ buds, the deep dull green of _Osmanthus_, the wine red of
_Leucothoe_, the pearl grey of _Atriplex_, and a hundred more will
respond to our beck and call. Only we must choose with judgment, for
whether our lot is cast in north or south, in the black east or soft
caressing west, makes all the difference to our choosing. Only be sure
that more important still than climate are the wind-breaks we can plan,
and the shelter we may contrive. Yet when we are in doubt we can always
come back with satisfaction to the quick-growing hardiest shrubs and
find in them some fit setting for our garden picture. The slender angled
branches of green Broom, the rigid spiny Furze, scented Rosemary, or
hoary Lavender--all will lend their varied tints and attributes as we
need them. And if a pool or stream only gives us opportunity, what can
surpass the winter colouring of osier twigs--golden and crimson and
olive, mirrored in still water or broken into a thousand reflections by
the ripple of a running brook?

Perhaps, amongst all the wealth of winter evergreen shrubs the rank of
those which show variegation is too much exaggerated. Popular as they
are, the effect is not always good, unless more th