Thresholds

Ann Gray and I walked in the snow scape at the Botanic Garden enjoying the silent scene. We were tree hunting but found both plant and animal treasures. We saw animal foot prints in the snow – predominantly human and of dramatically different sizes. There were paw prints both small and large too; we thought of foxes and Muntjac deer, the biggest of all was probably badger (surely not bear). We looked at fantastic trails of tripod bird prints. The best animal was a secret snow-white snow cat balanced on a branch. It was left there by some secret visitor for us to find and enjoy.

We admired the tiny, bright, scarlet flowers of the Persian Ironwood tree, made all the more dramatic by the snow etched branches. We went to find out how long this tree had been in the Garden and found records of the receipt of seed in 1880 and 1881 written in beautiful copperplate handwriting in the Accessions Ledgers. The plant label on the tree told us this plant had come from Iran, its common name told us this was originally Persia. Our Director told us over lunch that the tree was given its Latin name, Parrotia persica after the German naturalist Friedrich Parrot who discovered the tree during the nineteenth century.

Judy Fox