APBIL. 129 



with a belt of gold. In some rural districts the inele- 

 gant name of Horse-blob is applied to it, and so the 

 Northamptonshire peasant bard remarks 



" 'neath the shelving bank's retreat 



The Horse-blob swells its golden ball." 



By degrees, as the pleasant green of April spreads 

 over the country, flowers, albeit homely ones, get into 

 the ascendant and diversify the verdure ; here and 

 there a Dandelion, in a snug warm birth, spreads out 

 the star of his order ; and on the margin of some 

 mossy pool, just within the copse where the thrush is 

 now sitting on her blue-speckled eggs, appears the 

 bitter Cuckoo-flower (Cardamine amara), distinguished 

 from its more common congener by the purple colour 

 of its stamens and the nauseously bitter taste of its 

 foliage. In companionship with this, though almost 

 in the water itself, appear the two allied golden Saxi- 

 frages (Clirysospleniwm oppositifoliivm et alternifolium) , 

 the latter, however, rather the finer and the rarer of 

 the two. Trailing on the ground within the copse 

 appears the Bugle (Ajuga reptans), its rising heads of 

 dull blue flowers very apparent in the shade. 



To the wanderer who at this renovating season 

 penetrates in the early morning into the dewy copse, 

 and there pauses, listening to the sounds that rise 

 around him, there is a soothing charm that comes 

 redolent of peace to the chastened spirit, and for a 

 time obliterates the memory of many a care. How 

 simply do they judge, who think the prying botanist, 

 has, in his morning's ramble, merely gathered some 

 humble plant on which to employ his systematic or 

 speculative powers. True, he bears some fairy blos- 

 som from its hidden retreat, and so far lias extended 



