Both Uses

wither
in
The Railway Children
(Edited)

Perks sat down heavily in the elbow-chair and looked at them with what Bobbie afterwards described as withering glances of gloomy despair.
p. 173.5 *

withering = making the spirit weaker
Bobbie planted rose-bushes in her garden, but all the little new leaves of the rose-bushes shrivelled and withered, perhaps because she moved them from the other part of the garden in May, which is not at all the right time of the year for moving roses.
p. 185.6 *

withered = dried up

Definitions:

(1) (wither as in: wither on the vine)
to shrivel (wrinkle and contract -- usually from lack of water)
(2) (wither as in: her confidence withered)
to become weaker--sometimes to get smaller and disappear
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Much less commonly, Withers can be a last name.