WILD FLOWEKS OF APEIL. 

 (CONTINUED.) 



CHAP. VIII. 



LEAFAGE OF THE TREES. WILLOW, SYCAMORE, ELM, PEAR. 

 FLOWERING ORCHARDS. THE COWSLIP. MARSH- 

 MARIGOLD, BLUEBELL, AND OTHER FLOWERS. ACCOUNT 

 OF THE ARUM. CLOSING STORM. 



" I never see the broad-leaved Arum spring 



Stained with spots of jet ; I never see 

 Those dear delights which April still does bring ; 



But memory's tongue repeats it all to me. 

 I view her pictures with an anxious eye ; 



I hear her stories with a pleasing pain : 

 Youth's wither'd flowers, alas! ye make me sigh, 



To think in me ye'll never bloom again. 



CLARE. 



Slowly, especially in backward springs, proceeds the 

 leafage of the trees, but it does proceed ; and ere the 

 month has entirely closed, the proverbial tender green 

 of April is pretty generally diffused over the fields 

 and along the hedges. The fine digitated leaves of 

 the Horse- Chesnut, in particular, present, as they ex- 

 pand, an appearance very agreeable to the eye. The 

 young verdure of the larch, too, has now a very enli- 

 vening effect in plantations ; here and there a veteran 

 hawthorn will be seen with a scanty verdant mantle 

 about his aged limbs ; and in moist coppices the 



