Thick as autumnal >leaves that strew the brooks / In Vallombrosa.
Thick as autumnal >leaves or driving sand.
Thick as autumnal >leaves that strow the brooks In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades High over-arch'd imbower.
One chilly autumn evening, he was reminded of the painter by a stalk of corn: the way it stood there armed in its rough coat of leaves, exposing its delicate roots atop the mounded earth like so many nerves, it was also a portrait of his own most vulnerable self. The discovery only served to increase his melancholy.
The internal heat of the earth, the elevation and depression of its crust, its belchings forth of vapours, ashes, and lava, are its activities, in as strict a sense as are warmth and the movements and products of respiration the activities of an animal. The phenomena of the seasons, of the trade winds, of the Gulf-stream, are as much the results of the reaction between these inner activities and outward forces as are the budding of the leaves in spring and their falling in autumn the effects of the interaction between the organisation of a plant and the solar light and heat. And, as the study of the activities of the living being is called its physiology, so are these phenomena the subject-matter of an analogous telluric physiology, to which we sometimes give the name of meteorology, sometimes that of physical geography, sometimes that of geology. Again, the earth has a place in space and in time, and relations to other bodies in both these respects, which constitute its distribution. This subject is usually left to the astronomer; but a knowledge of its broad outlines seems to me to be an essential constituent of the stock of geological ideas.
The ground was hard, the air was still, my road was lonely; I walked fast till I got warm, and then I walked slowly to enjoy and analyse the species of pleasure brooding for me in the hour and situation. It was three o'clock; the church bell tolled as I passed under the belfry: the charm of the hour lay in its approaching dimness, in the low-gliding and pale-beaming sun. I was a mile from Thornfield, in a lane noted for wild roses in summer, for nuts and blackberries in autumn, and even now possessing a few coral treasures in hips and haws, but whose best winter delight lay in its utter solitude and leafless repose. If a breath of air stirred, it made no sound here; for there was not a holly, not an evergreen to rustle, and the stripped hawthorn and hazel bushes were as still as the white, worn stones which causewayed the middle of the path. Far and wide, on each side, there were only fields, where no cattle now browsed; and the little brown birds, which stirred occasionally in the hedge, looked like single russet leaves that had forgotten to drop.
"Autumn passed thus. I saw, with surprise and grief, the leaves decay and fall, and nature again assume the barren and bleak appearance it had worn when I first beheld the woods and the lovely moon. Yet I did not heed the bleakness of the weather; I was better fitted by my conformation for the endurance of cold than heat. But my chief delights were the sight of the flowers, the birds, and all the gay apparel of summer; when those deserted me, I turned with more attention towards the cottagers. Their happiness was not decreased by the absence of summer. They loved and sympathized with one another; and their joys, depending on each other, were not interrupted by the casualties that took place around them. The more I saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures; to see their sweet looks directed towards me with affection was the utmost limit of my ambition. I dared not think that they would turn them from me with disdain and horror. The poor that stopped at their door were never driven away. I asked, it is true, for greater treasures than a little food or rest: I required kindness and sympathy; but I did not believe myself utterly unworthy of it.
I ceas'd, when thus the venerable shade. Not so; she faithful still and patient dwells Thy roof beneath; but all her days and nights Devoting sad to anguish and to tears. Thy fortunes still are thine; Telemachus Cultivates, undisturb'd, thy land, and sits At many a noble banquet, such as well Beseems the splendour of his princely state, For all invite him; at his farm retired Thy father dwells, nor to the city comes, For aught; nor bed, nor furniture of bed, Furr'd cloaks or splendid arras he enjoys, But, with his servile hinds all winter sleeps In ashes and in dust at the hearth-side, Coarsely attired; again, when summer comes, Or genial autumn, on the fallen leaves In any nook, not curious where, he finds There, stretch'd forlorn, nourishing grief, he weeps Thy lot, enfeebled now by num'rous years. So perish'd I; such fate I also found; Me, neither the right-aiming arch'ress struck, Diana, with her gentle shafts, nor me Distemper slew, my limbs by slow degrees But sure, bereaving of their little life, But long regret, tender solicitude, And recollection of thy kindness past, These, my Ulysses! fatal proved to me.
It was silent in the woods. The leaves were gone, and the tree-trunks were a pale wan colour in the low, sickly autumn sun. Not a thing moved, except the ice of little woodland pools shivering under our feet. Was it an ambush?
I would fain exercise some better faculty than that of fierce speaking; fain find nourishment for some less fiendish feeling than that of sombre indignation. I took a book--some Arabian tales; I sat down and endeavoured to read. I could make no sense of the subject; my own thoughts swam always between me and the page I had usually found fascinating. I opened the glass-door in the breakfast-room: the shrubbery was quite still: the black frost reigned, unbroken by sun or breeze, through the grounds. I covered my head and arms with the skirt of my frock, and went out to walk in a part of the plantation which was quite sequestrated; but I found no pleasure in the silent trees, the falling fir-cones, the congealed relics of autumn, russet leaves, swept by past winds in heaps, and now stiffened together. I leaned against a gate, and looked into an empty field where no sheep were feeding, where the short grass was nipped and blanched. It was a very grey day; a most opaque sky, "onding on snaw," canopied all; thence flakes felt it intervals, which settled on the hard path and on the hoary lea without melting. I stood, a wretched child enough, whispering to myself over and over again, "What shall I do?--what shall I do?"
In winter the thicket was black, dripping, bristling, shivering, and allowed some glimpse of the house. Instead of flowers on the branches and dew in the flowers, the long silvery tracks of the snails were visible on the cold, thick carpet of yellow leaves; but in any fashion, under any aspect, at all seasons, spring, winter, summer, autumn, this tiny enclosure breathed forth melancholy, contemplation, solitude, liberty, the absence of man, the presence of God; and the rusty old gate had the air of saying: "This garden belongs to me."
The statues under the trees, white and nude, had robes of shadow pierced with light; these goddesses were all tattered with sunlight; rays hung from them on all sides. Around the great fountain, the earth was already dried up to the point of being burnt. There was sufficient breeze to raise little insurrections of dust here and there. A few yellow leaves, left over from the autumn, chased each other merrily, and seemed to be playing tricks on each other.
A few species are hardy in dry sheltered positions, such as rockeries, under walls and old trees, provided the positions are well drained. Such are _C. europaeum_, with reddish-purple flowers in summer; _C. hederifolium_ in autumn; and _C. neapolitanum_, with large leaves marbled with silver and rosy-pink flowers. Entry: A
HAUTES-PYRÉNÉES, a department of south-western France, on the Spanish frontier, formed in 1790, half of it being taken from Bigorre and the remainder from Armagnac, Nébouzan, Astarac and Quatre Vallées, districts which all belonged to the province of Gascony. Pop. (1906), 209,397. Area, 1750 sq. m. Hautes-Pyrénées is bounded S. by Spain, W. by the department of Basses-Pyrénées (which encloses on its eastern border five communes belonging to Hautes-Pyrénées), N. by Gers and E. by Haute-Garonne. Except on the south its boundaries are conventional. The south of the department, comprising two-thirds of its area, is occupied by the central Pyrénées. Some of the peaks reach or exceed the height of 10,000 ft., the Vignemale (10,820 ft.) being the highest in the French Pyrénées. The imposing _cirques_ (Cirques de Troumouse, Gavarnie and Estaubé), with their glaciers and waterfalls, and the pleasant valleys attract a large number of tourists, the most noted point being the Cirque de Gavarnie. The northern portion of the department is a region of plains and undulating hills clothed with cornfields, vineyards and meadows. To the north-east, however, the cold and wind-swept plateau of Lannemezan (about 2000 ft.), the watershed of the streams that come down on the French side of the Pyrenees, presents in its bleakness and barrenness a striking contrast to the plain that lies below. The department is drained by three principal streams, the Gave de Pau, the Adour and the Neste, an affluent of the Garonne. The sources of the first and third lie close together in the Cirque of Gavarnie and on the slopes of Troumouse, whence they flow respectively to the north-west and north-east. An important section of the Pyrenees, which carries the Massif Néouvielle and the Pic du Midi de Bigorre (with its meteorological observatory), runs northward between these two valleys. From the Pic du Midi descends the Adour, which, after watering the pleasant valley of Campan, leaves the mountains at Bagnères and then divides into a multitude of channels, to irrigate the rich plain of Tarbes. The chief of these is the Canal d'Alaric with a length of 36 m. Beyond Hautes-Pyrénées it receives on the right the Arros, which flows through the department from south to north-northwest; on the left it receives the Gave de Pau. This latter stream, rising in Gavarnie, is joined at Luz by the Gave de Bastan from Néouvielle, and at Pierrefitte by the Gave de Cauterets, fed by streams from the Vignemale. The Gave de Pau, after passing Argelès, a well-known centre for excursions, and Lourdes, leaves the mountains and turns sharply from north to west; it has a greater volume of water than the Adour, but, being more of a mountain torrent, is regarded as a tributary of the Adour, which is navigable in the latter part of its course. The Neste d'Aure, descending from the peaks of Néouvielle and Troumouse, receives at Arreau the Neste de Louron from the pass of Clarabide and flows northwards through a beautiful valley as far as La Barthe, where it turns east; it is important as furnishing the plateau of Lannemezan with a canal, the Canal de la Neste, the waters of which are partly used for irrigation and partly for supplying the streams that rise there and are dried up in summer--the Gers and the Baïse, affluents of the Garonne. This latter only touches the department. The climate of Hautes-Pyrénées, though very cold on the highlands, is warm and moist in the plains, where there are hot summers, fine autumns, mild winters and rainy springs. On the plateau of Lannemezan, while the summers are dry and scorching, the winters are very severe. The average annual rainfall at Tarbes, in the north of the department, is about 34 in.; at the higher altitudes it is much greater. The mean annual temperature at Tarbes is 59° Fahr. Entry: HAUTES
ASH[1] (Ger. _Esche_), a common name (Fr. _fréne_) given to certain trees. The common ash (_Fraxinus excelsior_) belongs to the natural order Oleaceae, the olive family, an order of trees and shrubs which includes lilac, privet and jasmine. The Hebrew word _Oren_, translated "ash" in Isaiah xliv. 14, cannot refer to an ash tree, as that is not a native of Palestine, but probably refers to the Aleppo pine (_Pinus halepensis_). The ash is a native of Great Britain and the greater part of Europe, and also extends to Asia. The tree is distinguished for its height and contour, as well as for its graceful foliage. It attains a height of from 50 to 80 ft., and flowers in March and April, before the leaves are developed. The reddish flowers grow in clusters, but are not showy. They are naked, that is without sepals or petals, and generally imperfect, wanting either stamens or pistil. The large leaves, which are late in appearing, are pinnately compound, bearing four to seven pairs of gracefully tapering toothed leaflets on a slender stalk. The dry winged fruits, the so-called keys, are a characteristic feature and often remain hanging in bunches long after the leaves have fallen in autumn. The leaves fall early, but the greyish twigs and black buds render the tree conspicuous in winter and especially in early spring. Entry: ASH
HACKBERRY, a name given to the fruit of _Celtis occidentalis_, belonging to the natural botanical order _Ulmaceae_, to which also belongs the elm (_Ulmus_). It is also known under the name of "sugar-berry," "beaver-wood" and "nettle-tree." The hackberry tree is of middle size, attaining from 60 to 80 ft. in height (though sometimes reaching 130 ft.), and with the aspect of an elm. The leaves are ovate in shape, with a very long taper point, rounded and usually very oblique at the base, usually glabrous above and soft-pubescent beneath. The soft filmy flowers appear early in the spring before the expansion of the leaves. The fruit is oblong, about half to three-quarters of an inch long, of a reddish or yellowish colour when young, turning to a dark purple in autumn. This tree is distributed through the deep shady forests bordering river banks from Canada (where it is very rare) to the southern states. The fruit has a sweetish and slightly astringent taste, and is largely eaten in the United States. The seeds contain an oil like that of almonds. The bark is tough and fibrous like hemp, and the wood is heavy, soft, fragile and coarse-grained, and is used for making fences and furniture. The root has been used as a dye for linens. Entry: HACKBERRY
FUNKIA, in botany, a genus of rather handsome, hardy, herbaceous plants belonging to the natural order Liliaceae, and natives of China and Japan. They are tuberous, with broadly ovate or heart-shaped leaves and racemes of white or pale lilac, drooping, funnel-shaped flowers. They are useful for the borders of a shrubbery, the lawn or rock-work, or may be grown in pots for the greenhouse. The plants are propagated by dividing the crowns in autumn or when growth begins in spring. Entry: FUNKIA
_Flora and Fauna._--The date-palm is the characteristic tree of Fezzan, and constitutes the chief wealth of the land. Many different kinds of date-palms are found in the oases: in that of Murzuk alone more than 30 varieties are counted, the most esteemed being named the Tillis, Tuati and Auregh. In all Fezzan the date is the staple food, not only for men, but for camels, horses and dogs. Even the stones of the fruit are softened and given to the cattle. The huts of the poorer classes are entirely made of date-palm leaves, and the more substantial habitations consist chiefly of the same material. The produce of the tree is small, 100 full-grown trees yielding only about 40 cwt. of dates. Besides the date there are numerous olive, fig and almond trees. Various grains are cultivated. Wheat and barley are sown in winter, and in spring, summer and autumn several kinds of durra, especially ksob and gafoli. Cotton flourishes, is perennial for six or seven years, and gives large pods of moderate length of staple. Entry: FEZZAN
The appearance of the vegetation is very different from that of the United States, which is comparable to China in situation and in extent. Though there are 60 species of oak in China, many with magnificent foliage and remarkable cupules, the red oaks, so characteristic of North America, with their bristle-pointed leaves, turning beautiful colours in autumn, are quite unknown. The great coniferous forest west of the Rocky Mountains has no analogue in China, the gigantic and preponderant Douglas fir being absent, while the giant _Sequoias_ are represented only on a small scale by _Cryptomeria_, which attains half their height. Entry: I
HAREBELL (sometimes wrongly written HAIRBELL), known also as the blue-bell of Scotland, and witches' thimbles, a well-known perennial wild flower, _Campanula rotundifolia_, a member of the natural order Campanulaceae. The harebell has a very slender slightly creeping root-stock, and a wiry, erect stem. The radical leaves, that is, those at the base of the stem, to which the specific name _rotundifolia_ refers, have long stalks, and are roundish or heart-shaped with crenate or serrate margin; the lower stem leaves are ovate or lanceolate, and the upper ones linear, subsessile, acute and entire, rarely pubescent. The flowers are slightly drooping, arranged in a panicle, or in small specimens single, having a smooth calyx, with narrow pointed erect segments, the corolla bell-shaped, with slightly recurved segments, and the capsule nodding, and opening by pores at the base. There are two varieties:--(a) _genuina_, with slender stem leaves, and (b) _montana_, in which the lower stem-leaves are broader and somewhat elliptical in shape. The plant is found on heaths and pastures throughout Great Britain and flowers in late summer and in autumn; it is widely spread in the north temperate zone. The harebell has ever been a great favourite with poets, and on account of its delicate blue colour has been considered as an emblem of purity. Entry: HAREBELL
It is obvious, then, that a high rate of interest in New York, with a high rate of exchange on London and a low rate of discount in England, would induce the creation of these finance bills. The supply of these bills would prevent New York exchange reaching the limit point at which gold leaves the United States, and the maturity of these bills in the autumn would ensure a demand for the produce bills and possibly prevent exchange from falling to the other limit point at which London has to send gold to New York. Entry: EXCHANGE
GROUNDSEL (Ger. _Kreuzkraut_; Fr. _seneçon_), _Senecio vulgaris_, an annual, glabrous, or more or less woolly plant of the natural order Compositae, having a branched succulent stem 6 to 15 in. in height, pinnatifid irregularly and coarsely-toothed leaves, and small cylindrical heads of yellow tubular florets enveloped in an involucre of numerous narrow bracts; the ribbed fruit bears a soft, feathery, hoary tuft of hairs (_pappus_). The plant is indigenous to Europe, whence it has been introduced into all temperate climates. It is a troublesome weed, flowering throughout the year, and propagating itself rapidly by means of its light feathery fruits; it has its use, however, as a food for cage-birds. _Senecio Jacobaea_, ragwort, is a showy plant with heads of bright yellow flowers, common in pastures and by roadsides. The genus _Senecio_ is a very large one, widely distributed in temperate and cold climates. The British species are all herbs, but the genus also includes shrubs and even arborescent forms, which are characteristic features of the vegetation of the higher levels on the mountains of tropical Africa. Many species of the genus are handsome florists' plants. The groundsel tree, _Baccharis halimifolia_, a native of the North American sea-coast from Massachusetts southward, is a Composite shrub, attaining 6 to 12 ft. in height, and having angular branches, obovate or oblong-cuneate, somewhat scurfy leaves, and flowers larger than but similar to those of common groundsel. The long white pappus of the female plant renders it a conspicuous object in autumn. The groundsel tree has been cultivated in British gardens since 1683. Entry: GROUNDSEL
Only a few species occur in Britain. _G. amarella_ (felwort) and _G. campestris_ are small annual species growing on chalky or calcareous hills, and bear in autumn somewhat tubular pale purple flowers; the latter is most easily distinguished by having two of the lobes of the calyx larger than the other two, while the former has the parts of the calyx in fives, and equal in size. Some intermediate forms between these two species occur, although rarely, in England; one of these, _G. germanica_, has larger flowers of a bluer tint, spreading branches, and a stouter stem. Some of these forms flower in spring. _G. pneumonanthe_, the Calathian violet, is a rather rare perennial species, growing in moist heathy places from Cumberland to Dorsetshire. Its average height is from 6 to 9 in. It has linear leaves, and a bright blue corolla 1½ in. long, marked externally with five greenish bands, is without hairs in its throat, and is found in perfection about the end of August. It is the handsomest of the British species; two varieties of it are known in cultivation, one with spotted and the other with white flowers. _G. verna_ and _G. nivalis_ are small species with brilliant blue flowers and small leaves. The former is a rare and local perennial, occurring, however, in Teesdale and the county of Clare in Ireland in tolerable abundance. It has a tufted habit of growth, and each stem bears only one flower. It is sometimes cultivated as an edging for flower borders. _G. nivalis_ in Britain occurs only on a few of the loftiest Scottish mountains. It differs from the last in being an annual, and having a more isolated habit of growth, and in the stem bearing several flowers. On the Swiss mountains these beautiful little plants are very abundant; and the splendid blue colour of masses of gentian in flower is a sight which, when once seen, can never be forgotten. For ornamental purposes several species are cultivated. The great difficulty of growing them successfully renders them, however, less common than would otherwise be the case; although very hardy when once established, they are very impatient of removal, and rarely flower well until the third year after planting. Of the ornamental species found in British gardens some of the prettiest are _G. acaulis_, _G. verna_, _G. pyrenaica_, _G. bavarica_, _G. septemfida_ and _G. gelida_. Perhaps the handsomest and most easily grown is the first named, often called _Gentianella_, which produces its large intensely blue flowers early in the spring. Entry: GENTIAN
MARGUERITE, the popular name for the plant known botanically as _Pyrethrum_ (or _Chrysanthemum_) _frutescens_ (natural order Compositae), a shrubby perennial with smooth leaves cut pinnately into narrow segments and flower-heads two to three inches across produced singly in summer and autumn on slender erect stalks. The white ray-florets surround a yellow disk. It is a native of the Canary Isles, and a favourite for decoration and for greenhouse cultivation, window-boxes and open ground in the summer. The yellow marguerite (_étoile d'or_) has somewhat larger pale yellow flowers and glaucous leaves. The plant is propagated from cuttings taken in autumn from old plants and placed in sandy loamy soil in cold frames. By pruning the shoots in autumn the plants may be grown into very large specimens in the course of a few seasons. Entry: MARGUERITE
HIPPEASTRUM, in botany, a genus of the natural order Amaryllidaceae, containing about 50 species of bulbous plants, natives of tropical and sub-tropical South America. In cultivation they are generally known as _Amaryllis_. The handsome funnel-shaped flowers are borne in a cluster of two to many, at the end of a short hollow scape. The species and the numerous hybrids which have been obtained artificially, show a great variety in size and colour of the flower, including the richest deep crimson and blood-red, white, or with striped, mottled or blended colours. They are of easy culture, and free-blooming habit. Like other bulbs they are increased by offsets, which should be carefully removed when the plants are at rest, and should be allowed to attain a fair size before removal. These young bulbs should be potted singly in February or March, in mellow loamy soil with a moderate quantity of sand, about two-thirds of the bulb being kept above the level of the soil, which should be made quite solid. They should be removed to a temperature of 60° by night and 70° by day, very carefully watered until the roots have begun to grow freely, after which the soil should be kept moderately moist. As they advance the temperature should be raised to 70° at night, and to 80° or higher with sun heat by day. They do not need shading, but should have plenty of air, and be syringed daily in the afternoon. When growing they require a good supply of water. After the decay of the flowers they should be returned to a brisk moist temperature of from 70° to 80° by day during summer to perfect their leaves, and then be ripened off in autumn. Through the winter they should have less water, but must not be kept entirely dry. The minimum temperature should now be about 55°, to be increased 10° or 15° in spring. As the bulbs get large they will occasionally need shifting into larger pots. Propagation is also readily effected by seeds for raising new varieties. Seeds are sown when ripe in well drained pans of sandy loam at a temperature of about 65°. The seedlings when large enough to handle are placed either singly in very small pots or several in a pot or shallow pan, and put in a bottom heat, in a moist atmosphere with a temperature from 60° to 70°. _H. Ackermanni_, with large, handsome, crimson flowers--itself a hybrid--is the parent of many of the large-flowered forms; _H. equestre_ (Barbados lily), with yellowish-green flowers tipped with scarlet, has also given rise to several handsome forms; _H. aulicum_ (flowers crimson and green), _H. pardinum_ (flowers creamy-white spotted with crimson), and _H. vittatum_ (flowers white with red stripes, a beautiful species and the parent of many varieties), are stove or warm greenhouse plants. These kinds, however, are now only regarded as botanical curiosities, and are rarely grown in private or commercial establishments. They have been ousted by the more gorgeous looking hybrids, which have been evolved during the past 100 years. _H. Johnsoni_ is named after a Lancashire watchmaker who raised it in 1799 by crossing _H. Reginae_ with _H. vittatum_. Since that time other species have been used for hybridizing, notably _H. reticulatum_, _H. aulicum_, _H. solandriflorum_, and sometimes _H. equestre_ and _H. psittacinum_. The finest forms since 1880 have been evolved from _H. Leopoldi_ and _H. pardinum_. (J. Ws.) Entry: HIPPEASTRUM