ITS TREES.
109
necessary. A beginning has been made, and will
be largely extended in future years.
Some have urged that extensive drainage of
the Forest should be undertaken. On the other
hand, naturalists have complained that this would
destroy the swamps, which are their favourite hunt-
ing ground. They need be under little apprehen-
sion, for, as regards the wooded portion, drainage
is very difficult if not impossible. Open drains
through clay soil get quickly trodden in by cattle,
while covered drains are sought out and presently
blocked by the roots of trees.
Of the thousands of Londoners who refresh them-
selves by a visit to our groves, comparatively few
do so at the two periods of the year when they are
most beautiful—early May and late October. To
the tree-lover I strongly recommend the former
month. It is then, when the first burst of spring
takes place, that the distinguishing characteristics,
and especially the colours of each tree, can be best
seen. A few weeks later the yellow of the young
oak foliage, the gray green of the birches and the
burnished light-reflecting quality of the beeches,
are merged in one uniform dark green, lovely in its
varied shapes and play of light and deep shadow,
but monotonous as to colour. The blackthorn in
April, the hawthorn in May, a month later the
crab, and sheets of the water-violet and water-
ranunculus, supply the masses of white without
which no group either of flowers or trees is com-
plete. Again in the " fall," when our glades are
almost solitudes, who can measure the glories of
the beech groves when they put on their first
autumn touches of brown and gold, contrasting
with the dark green of the more persistent oak,