110 WILD FLOWERS OF 



now whitens o'er the damp copse, closing its petals at 

 sunset, or before rain, and expanding them in the 

 fervid rays of noon. As it is a social plant, the num- 

 bers that often decorate the mossy carpet of the 

 woods, present the most pleasing spectacle to the eye 

 of the April wanderer, giving a peculiar feature to the 

 spots where they abound, long before the Cuckoo- 

 flower forms those silver islets that sparkle brightly 

 from afar in the damper meadows. 



" Anemone's weeping flowers, 



Dyed in winter's snow and rime, 

 Constant to their early time, 

 White the leaf-strewn ground again, 

 And make each wood a garden glen."* 



The petals on their exterior side are often deeply 

 tinged with purple. 



A plant with remarkable thyrsus-like purple ag- 

 glomerated flowers now presents itself often in great 

 abundance (for its habits are social) on the stony 

 barren banks of brooks and rivers. Though well 

 known in summer by its enormous leaves, which 

 are larger than those of any other British plant, it 

 flowers so early and in such low places as to be 

 seldom noticed, though when found by no means 

 inconspicuous, and offering an agreeable aliment to 

 the bees. This is the Butterbur (Tussilago petasites), 

 whose leaves not appearing till after the flowers have 

 faded, have several times been used by us as parasols 

 in summer botanical excursions, which their size and 

 the length as well as thickness of their petioles well 

 fits them for. The flowers of the Hybrid Butterbur, 

 the fertile plant, which is rarer than the common 

 kind, have a peculiarly elegant aspect. 



* CLAUE. 



