That time of year thou may'st in me behold, When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,-- Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
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."
M. de Boville had indeed met the funeral procession which was taking Valentine to her last home on earth. The weather was dull and stormy, a cold wind shook the few remaining yellow leaves from the boughs of the trees, and scattered them among the crowd which filled the boulevards. M. de Villefort, a true Parisian, considered the cemetery of Pere-la-Chaise alone worthy of receiving the mortal remains of a Parisian family; there alone the corpses belonging to him would be surrounded by worthy associates. He had therefore purchased a vault, which was quickly occupied by members of his family. On the front of the monument was inscribed: "The families of Saint-Meran and Villefort," for such had been the last wish expressed by poor Renee, Valentine's mother. The pompous procession therefore wended its way towards Pere-la-Chaise from the Faubourg Saint-Honore. Having crossed Paris, it passed through the Faubourg du Temple, then leaving the exterior boulevards, it reached the cemetery. More than fifty private carriages followed the twenty mourning-coaches, and behind them more than five hundred persons joined in the procession on foot.
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.
It was a perfect spring day. The air was sweet and gentle and the sky stretched high, an intense blue. Harold was certain that the last time he had peered through the net drapes of Fossebridge Road (his home), the trees and hedges were dark bones and spindles against the skyline; yet now that he was out, and on his feet, it was as if everywhere he looked, the fields, gardens, trees, and hedgerows and exploded with growth. A canopy of sticky young leaves clung to the branches above him. There were startling yellow clouds of forsythia, trails of purple aubrietia; a young willow shook in a fountain of silver. The first of the potato shoots fingered through the soil, and already tiny buds hung from the gooseberry and currant shrubs like the earrings Maureen used to wear. The abundance of new life was enough to make him giddy.
Several varieties of this tree are cultivated, differing in the size of the flowers, in the form of the foliage, &c., such as the "oak-leafed" (_quercifolium_), _pendulum_, _crispum_, &c.; var. _aureum_ has golden yellow leaves. One of the most remarkable forms is _Cytisus Adami (C. purpurascens)_, which bears three kinds of blossoms, viz. racemes of pure yellow flowers, others of a purple colour and others of an intermediate brick-red tint. The last are hybrid blossoms, and are sterile, with malformed ovules, though the pollen appears to be good. The yellow and purple "reversions" are fertile. It originated in Paris in 1828 by M. Adam, who inserted a "shield" of the bark of Cytisus purpureus into a stock of Laburnum. A vigorous shoot from this bud was subsequently propagated. Hence it would appear that the two distinct species became united by their cambium layers, and the trees propagated therefrom subsequently reverted to their respective parentages in bearing both yellow and purple flowers, but produce as well blossoms of an intermediate or hybrid character. Such a result may be called a "graft-hybrid." For full details see Darwin's _Animals and Plants under Domestication_. Entry: LABURNUM
Several varieties are known in cultivation: _aurea_, golden elder, has golden-yellow leaves; _laciniata_, parsley-leaved elder, has the leaflets cut into fine segments; _rotundifolia_ has rounded leaflets; forms also occur with variegated white and yellow leaves, and _virescens_ is a variety having white bark and green-coloured berries. The scarlet-berried elder, _S. racemosa_, is the handsomest species of the genus. It is a native of various parts of Europe, growing in Britain to a height of over 15 ft., but often producing no fruit. The dwarf elder or Danewort (supposed to have been introduced into Britain by the Danes), _S. Ebulus_, a common European species, reaches a height of about 6 ft. Its cyme is hairy, has three principal branches, and is smaller than that of _S. nigra_; the flowers are white tipped with pink. All parts of the plant are cathartic and emetic. Entry: ELDER
He lowered the window, and looked out at the rising sun. There was a ridge of ploughed land, with a plough upon it where it had been left last night when the horses were unyoked; beyond, a quiet coppice-wood, in which many leaves of burning red and golden yellow still remained upon the trees. Though the earth was cold and wet, the sky was clear, and the sun rose bright, placid, and beautiful.
When this last task was accomplished it was noon, and the seamen went below to their dinner. Silence reigned over the before tumultuous but now deserted deck. An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon the sea.
It was of no avail that the pavements of Paris were there on every side, the classic and splendid hotels of the Rue de Varennes a couple of paces away, the dome of the Invalides close at hand, the Chamber of Deputies not far off; the carriages of the Rue de Bourgogne and of the Rue Saint-Dominique rumbled luxuriously, in vain, in the vicinity, in vain did the yellow, brown, white, and red omnibuses cross each other's course at the neighboring cross-roads; the Rue Plumet was the desert; and the death of the former proprietors, the revolution which had passed over it, the crumbling away of ancient fortunes, absence, forgetfulness, forty years of abandonment and widowhood, had sufficed to restore to this privileged spot ferns, mulleins, hemlock, yarrow, tall weeds, great crimped plants, with large leaves of pale green cloth, lizards, beetles, uneasy and rapid insects; to cause to spring forth from the depths of the earth and to reappear between those four walls a certain indescribable and savage grandeur; and for nature, which disconcerts the petty arrangements of man, and which sheds herself always thoroughly where she diffuses herself at all, in the ant as well as in the eagle, to blossom out in a petty little Parisian garden with as much rude force and majesty as in a virgin forest of the New World.
Thus having mourn'd, he gave the word around, To raise the breathless body from the ground; And chose a thousand horse, the flow'r of all His warlike troops, to wait the funeral, To bear him back and share Evander's grief: A well-becoming, but a weak relief. Of oaken twigs they twist an easy bier, Then on their shoulders the sad burden rear. The body on this rural hearse is borne: Strew'd leaves and funeral greens the bier adorn. All pale he lies, and looks a lovely flow'r, New cropp'd by virgin hands, to dress the bow'r: Unfaded yet, but yet unfed below, No more to mother earth or the green stern shall owe. Then two fair vests, of wondrous work and cost, Of purple woven, and with gold emboss'd, For ornament the Trojan hero brought, Which with her hands Sidonian Dido wrought. One vest array'd the corpse; and one they spread O'er his clos'd eyes, and wrapp'd around his head, That, when the yellow hair in flame should fall, The catching fire might burn the golden caul. Besides, the spoils of foes in battle slain, When he descended on the Latian plain; Arms, trappings, horses, by the hearse are led In long array- th' achievements of the dead. Then, pinion'd with their hands behind, appear Th' unhappy captives, marching in the rear, Appointed off'rings in the victor's name, To sprinkle with their blood the fun'ral flame. Inferior trophies by the chiefs are borne; Gauntlets and helms their loaded hands adorn; And fair inscriptions fix'd, and titles read Of Latian leaders conquer'd by the dead.
"Why is that gendarme there?" asked Andrea of himself. Then, all at once, he replied, with that logic which the reader has, doubtless, remarked in him, "There is nothing astonishing in seeing a gendarme at an inn; instead of being astonished, let me dress myself." And the youth dressed himself with a facility his valet de chambre had failed to rob him of during the two months of fashionable life he had led in Paris. "Now then," said Andrea, while dressing himself, "I'll wait till he leaves, and then I'll slip away." And, saying this, Andrea, who had now put on his boots and cravat, stole gently to the window, and a second time lifted up the muslin curtain. Not only was the first gendarme still there, but the young man now perceived a second yellow, blue, and white uniform at the foot of the staircase, the only one by which he could descend, while a third, on horseback, holding a musket in his fist, was posted as a sentinel at the great street door which alone afforded the means of egress.
GENISTA, in botany, a genus of about eighty species of shrubs belonging to the natural order Leguminosae, and natives of Europe, western Asia and North Africa. Three are native in Britain. _G. anglica_ is the needle-furze or petty whin, found on heaths and moist moors, a spinous plant with slender spreading branches 1 to 2 ft. long, very small leaves and short racemes of small yellow papilionaceous flowers. The pollen is emitted in a shower when an insect alights on it. _G. tinctoria_, dyer's green-weed, the flowers of which yield a yellow dye, has no spines. Other species are grown on rock-work or as greenhouse plants. Entry: GENISTA
Tribe 7. _Aveneae_ (about 24 genera, seven of which are British). _Holcus lanatus_ (Yorkshire fog, soft grass) is a common meadow and wayside grass with woolly or downy leaves. _Aira_ is a genus of delicate annuals with slender hair-like branches of the panicle. _Deschampsia_ and _Trisetum_ occur in temperate and cold regions or on high mountains in the tropics; _T. pratense_ (_Avena flavescens_) with a loose panicle and yellow shining spikelets is a valuable fodder-grass. _Avena fatua_ is the wild oat and _A. sativa_ the cultivated oat (q.v.). _Arrhenatherum avenaceum_, a perennial field grass, native in Britain and central and southern Europe, is cultivated in North America. Entry: II
A class of pigments widely distributed among plants and animals are the lipochromes. As their name denotes, they are allied to fat and generally accompany it, being soluble in fat solvents. They play an important part in surface coloration, and may be greenish, yellow or red in colour. They contain no nitrogen. As an example of a lipochrome which has been isolated, crystallized and purified, we may mention carotin, which has recently been found in green leaves. Chlorophyll, which is so often associated with a lipochrome, has been found in some Infusoria, and in _Hydra_ and _Spongilla_, &c. In some cases it is probably formed by the animal; in other cases it may be due to symbiotic algae, while in the gastric gland of many Mollusca, Crustacea and Echinodermata it is derived from food-chlorophyll. Here it is known as entero-chlorophyll. The black pigments which occur among both vertebrate and invertebrate animals often have only one attribute in common, viz. blackness, for among the discordant results of analysis one thing is certain, viz. that the melanins from vertebrate animals are not identical with those from invertebrate animals. The melanosis or blackening of insect blood, for instance, is due to the oxidation of a chromogen, the pigment produced being known as a uranidine. In some sponges a somewhat similar pigment has been noticed. Other pigments have been described, such as actiniochrome, echinochrome, pentacrinin, antedonin, polyperythrin (which appears to be a haematoporphyrin), the floridines, spongioporphyrin, &c., which need no mention here; all these pigments can only be distinguished by means of the spectroscope. Entry: A
The common holly, or Hulver (apparently the [Greek: kêlastros] of Theophrastus;[1] Ang.-Sax. _holen_ or _holegn_; Mid. Eng. _holyn_ or _holin_, whence _holm_ and _holmtree_;[2] Welsh, _celyn_; Ger. _Stechpalme_, _Hulse_, _Hulst_; O. Fr. _houx_; and Fr. _houlx_),[3] _I. Aquifolium_, is an evergreen shrub or low tree, having smooth, ash-coloured bark, and wavy, pointed, smooth and glossy leaves, 2 to 3 in. long, with a spinous margin, raised and cartilaginous below, or, as commonly on the upper branches of the older trees, entire--a peculiarity alluded to by Southey in his poem _The Holly Tree_. The flowers, which appear in May, are ordinarily dioecious, as in all the best of the cultivated varieties in nurseries (_Gard. Chron._, 1877, i. 149). Darwin (_Diff. Forms of Flow._, 1877, p. 297) says of the holly: "During several years I have examined many plants, but have never found one that was really hermaphrodite." Shirley Hibberd, however (_Gard. Chron._, 1877, ii. 777), mentions the occurrence of "flowers bearing globose anthers well furnished with pollen, and also perfect ovaries." In his opinion, _I. Aquifolium_ changes its sex from male to female with age. In the female flowers the stamens are destitute of pollen, though but slightly or not at all shorter than in the male flowers; the latter are more numerous than the female, and have a smaller ovary and a larger corolla, to which the filaments adhere for a greater length. The corolla in male plants falls off entire, whereas in fruit-bearers it is broken into separate segments by the swelling of the young ovary. The holly occurs in Britain, north-east Scotland excepted, and in western and southern Europe, from as high as 62° N. lat. in Norway to Turkey and the Caucasus and in western Asia. It is found generally in forest glades or in hedges, and does not flourish under the shade of other trees. In England it is usually small, probably on account of its destruction for timber, but it may attain to 60 or 70 ft. in height, and Loudon mentions one tree at Claremont, in Surrey, of 80 ft. Some of the trees on Bleak Hill, Shropshire, are asserted to be 14 ft. in girth at some distance from the ground (_N. and Q._, 5th ser., xii. 508). The holly is abundant in France, especially in Brittany. It will grow in almost any soil not absolutely wet, but flourishes best in rather dry than moist sandy loam. Beckmann (_Hist. of Invent._, 1846, i. 193) says that the plant which first induced J. di Castro to search for alum in Italy was the holly, which is there still considered to indicate that its habitat is aluminiferous. The holly is propagated by means of the seeds, which do not normally germinate until their second year, by whip-grafting and budding, and by cuttings of the matured summer shoots, which, placed in sandy soil and kept under cover of a hand-glass in sheltered situations, generally strike root in spring. Transplantation should be performed in damp weather in September and October, or, according to some writers, in spring or on mild days in winter, and care should be taken that the roots are not dried by exposure to the air. It is rarely injured by frosts in Britain, where its foliage and bright red berries in winter render it a valuable ornamental tree. The yield of berries has been noticed to be less when a warm spring, following on a wet winter season, has promoted excess of growth. There are numerous varieties of the holly. Some trees have yellow, and others white or even black fruit. In the fruitless variety _laurifolia_, "the most floriferous of all hollies" (Hibberd), the flowers are highly fragrant; the form known as _femina_ is, on the other hand, remarkable for the number of its berries. The leaves in the unarmed varieties _aureo-marginata_ and _albo-marginata_ are of great beauty, and in _ferox_ they are studded with sharp prickles. The holly is of importance as a hedge-plant, and is patient of clipping, which is best performed by the knife. Evelyn's holly hedge at Say's Court, Deptford, was 400 ft. long, 9 ft. high and 5 ft. in breadth. To form fences, for which Evelyn recommends the employment of seedlings from woods, the plants should be 9 to 12 in. in height, with plenty of small fibrous roots, and require to be set 1 to 1½ ft. apart, in well-manured and weeded ground and thoroughly watered. Entry: 1
BIRD'S-EYE, a name applied to various small bright flowers, especially those which have a small spot or "eye" in the centre. The primula is thus spoken of, on account of its yellow centre, also the adonis, or "pheasant's eye," and the blue veronica, or germander speedwell. The word is also applied to a sort of tobacco, in which the stalks (of a mottled colour) are cut up together with the leaves. From a similar sense comes the phrase "bird's-eye maple," a speckled variety of maple-wood, or the "bird's-eye handkerchief" mentioned in Thackeray's novels. Entry: BIRD
_A. pseudo-platanus_, the sycamore or great maple, is a handsome tree of quick growth, with a smooth bark. The leaves are large, with finely acute and serrated lobes, affording abundant shade. The flowers are borne in long pendulous racemes, and the two wings of the fruit are ascending. It lives from 140 to 200 years. It is found wild chiefly in wooded mountainous situations in central Europe. The wood when young is white, but old heartwood is yellow or brownish. Like the common maple it is hard and takes a high polish. It is much prized by wheelwrights, cabinet-makers, sculptors, &c., on the Continent; while knotted roots are used for inlaying. Sugar has been obtained from the sap of this as from other species, the most being one ounce from a quart of sap. The latter has also been made into wine in the Highlands of Scotland. It withstands the sea and mountain breezes better than most other timber trees, and is often planted near farm-houses and cottages in exposed localities for the sake of its dense foliage. Its wood is valued in turnery for cups, bowls and pattern blocks. It produces abundance of seeds, and is easily raised, but it requires good and tolerably dry soil; it will not thrive on stiff clays nor on dry sands or chalks. There are many varieties, the variegated and cut-leaved being the most noticeable. The lobed shape of its leaf and its dense foliage caused it to be confused with the true sycamore--_Ficus sycamorus_--of scripture. Entry: _A
_Achillea._--Handsome composite plants, the stronger ones of easy culture in common soil. _A. Eupatorium_ and _filipendula_, 3 to 4 ft., have showy yellow corymbose flowers; _A. rosea_, 2 ft., rosy-crimson; and _A. Ptarmica flore-pleno_, 2 ft., double white flowers. Others suitable for front lines or rockwork are _A. tomentosa_, 9 in., bright yellow; _A. aegyptiaca_, 1 ft., silvery leaves and yellow flowers; _A. umbellata_, 8 in., silvery leaves and white flowers; and _A. Clavennae_, 6 in., with silvery leaves and pure white flowers. Entry: HARDY
The long stretch of sandy foreshore is broken on the coast-line by the magnificent cliffs of Malan, the hammer-shaped headlands of Ormarah and Gwadar, and the precipitous cliffs of Jebel Zarain, near Pasni. Within them lies the usual frontier band of parallel ridges, alternating with narrow valleys. Amongst them the ranges called Talana and Talur are conspicuous by their height and regular configuration. The normal conformation of the Baluchistan frontier is somewhat emphasized in Makran. Here the volcanic action, which preceded the general upheaval of recent strata and the folding of the edges of the interior highlands, is still in evidence in occasional boiling mud volcanoes on the coast-line. It is repeated in the blazing summit of the Kuh-i-taftan (the burning mountain of the Persian frontier) which is the highest active volcano in Asia (13,000 ft.), and probably the farthest inland. Evidence of extinct mud volcanoes exists through a very wide area in Baluchistan and Seistan. Probably the _miri_, or fort, at Quetta represents one of them. The coast is indented by several harbours. Ormarah, Khor Kalmat, Pasni and Gwadar are all somewhat difficult of approach by reason of a sand-bar which appears to extend along the whole coast-line, and which is very possibly the last evidence of a submerged ridge; and they are all subject to a very lively surf under certain conditions of wind. Of these the port of Gwadar (which belongs to Muscat and is therefore foreign territory) is the most important. They all are (or were) stations of the Indo-Persian telegraph system which unites Karachi with Bushire. With the exception of the Kej valley, and that of the Bolida, which is an affluent of the Kej, there are no considerable spaces of cultivation in Makran. These two valleys seem to concentrate the whole agricultural wealth of the country. They are picturesque, with thick groves of date palms at intervals, and are filled with crops and orchards. They are indeed exceedingly beautiful; and yet the surrounding waste of hills is chiefly a barren repetition of sun-cracked crags and ridges with parched and withered valleys intersecting them, where a trickle of salt water leaves a white and leprous streak amongst the faded tamarisk or the yellow stalks of last season's grass. Makran is the home of remnants of an innumerable company of mixed people gathered from the four corners of Asia and eastern Africa. The ancient Dravidians, of whom the Brahui is typical, still exist in many of the districts which are assigned to them in Herodotus. Amongst them there is always a prominent Arab element, for the Arabs held Makran even before they conquered Sind and made the Kej valley their trade highway to India. There are negroes on the coast, bred from imported slaves. The Meds of the Indus valley still form the greater part of the fishing population, representing the Ichthyophagi of Arrian. The old Tajik element of Persia is not so evident in Makran as it is farther north; and the Karak pirates whose depredations led to the invasion of India and the conquest of Sind, seem to have disappeared altogether. The fourth section includes the valleys formed by the Rakshan and Mashkel, which, sweeping downwards from the Kalat highlands and the Persian border east and west, unite to break through the intervening chain of hills northward to form the Mashkel swamps, and define the northern limits of Makran. In these valleys are narrow strips of very advanced cultivation, the dates of Panjgur being generally reckoned superior even to those of the Euphrates. The great Mashkel swamp and the Kharan desert to the east of it, mark the flat phase of southern Baluchistan topography. It is geologically part of an ancient inland lake or sea which included the present swamp regions of the Helmund, but not the central depression of the Lora. The latter is buttressed against hills at a much higher elevation than the Kharan desert, which is separated from the great expanse of the Helmund desert within the borders of Afghanistan by a transverse band of serrated hills forming a distinct watershed from Nushki to Seistan. Here and there these jagged peaks appear as if half overwhelmed by an advancing sea of sand. They are treeless and barren, and water is but rarely found at the edges of their foothills. The Koh-i-Sultan, at the western extremity of the northern group of these irregular hills, is over 6000 ft. above sea-level, but the general level of the surrounding deserts is only about 2000 ft., sinking to 1500 ft. in the Mashkel Hamun and the Gaod-i-Zirreh. Entry: MAKRAN
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