Natural Ornaments in Winter

Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Natural Ornaments in Winter.

Natural Ornaments in Winter.

Now that the hedges are no longer green, and the trees stand black and bare on the landscape, is the time to seek for endless variety and beauty waiting to be admired in its turn. What miniature fairy glens and grottoes are distributed over the hedge banks of our country lanes! Mosses, delicate and beautiful, may be found in the interstices of any old wall, or at the foot of almost any tree or shrub. In the winter time mosses and lichens are found in fruit, and are beautiful objects. A pocket microscope lens is essential for their proper observation; and though the delicate carmine cups of the species known as the cup moss, and the familiar gray and yellow mosaic appearance we see on twigs and branches on our way, are easily recognized, the study of this form of winter vegetation is an inexhaustible one, and is an occupation for a lifetime, if earnestly pursued. We do not however, suggest that every one who endeavors to recognize the different species of moss, lichens, or fungi should necessarily do so through the medium of the microscope; but it will greatly add to the pleasure of making a collection out of doors if there be a good microscope at home, so that when the contents of the basket be turned out, after the winter's walk, there should be interest even in the fragments left, after a little pile of varied bits has been constructed, rivalling the choicest summer bouquet in beauty of form and color. We have seen such a collection formed into a beautiful object by raising a little mound of rough bits of bark in a plate or saucer, and placing on it varieties of fungus of every shade of red, brown, yellow, and gray. They seem to spring forth from a bed of sphagnum or bog moss of brightest emerald green; while a clump of the screw wall moss in fruit, with its curious little box-like capsules, supports a gray or yellow lichen, which has been gently removed from some old wall or tree. A bit of stick or a twig, incrusted with a bright orange-colored lichen, supports a trailing branch of delicate green ivy, the most beautiful and adaptable of all winter foliage. Over this little arrangement is placed a bell glass, to preserve it from dust and the effect of a dry atmosphere; and we know how pleasing to the eye is its varied beauty of form and color, lasting thus, a constant source of pleasure, for many a day without renewal.—Chambers' Journal.

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