248 WILD FLOWEES OF 



its brilliant corolla on May 31st, or June 1st ; the 

 latter date is given by FOESTEE in his Rustic Calendar, 

 and I remember but few seasons in which the marshes 

 were not yellow with some of its flowers on the 1st 

 of June. But in 1837 I observed no flower of the 

 Iris expanded before June 19th, and not till June 

 17th in 1839, so that in those two ungenial springs 

 there was a general seasonal retardation, in the one 

 case of eighteen, and in the other of sixteen days. On 

 the other hand, in 1848, there was a considerable 

 acceleration in the flowering of plants, from the singu- 

 larly hot and early summer of that year.* The Yellow 

 Iris was then in full flower on May 24th. The Rosa 

 spinosissima usually commences flowering from the 

 20th to the 25th of April, but in the former of the 

 years mentioned, it did not expand, to my observa- 

 tion, till June llth, while Rosa canina almost always 

 showing some flowers by June 1st or 2nd, presented 

 none before June 19th, and then very partially. In 

 1839 the wild Eose did not show its flowers until the 

 20th of June, while the 20th of May, 1840, exhibited 

 a floral aspect at least a month in advance of the 

 former year. The high temperature of the early part 

 of the summer of 1848 brought out the Dog-Eose as 

 early as May 17th. 



The association of the green boughs of the season, 

 in connection with church festivals, is very pleasing, 

 and fraught with poetical imagery. I have frequently 

 been charmed to behold rustic churches plenteously 

 adorned with the green pledge of renewed spring, or 

 the evergreen promise of immortality. I remember 

 in a spring ramble, some years ago, being overtaken 



* In the Phytologist of that year I have examined the subject in detail. 



