The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY. 



Vol. il MARCH, 1899. No. 6. 



A MARCH RAMBLE. 



ET us search the brown woods ere the March winds are laid, 

 Ere the flower buds swell, and the leaves cast a shade. 

 To the lover of nature they ever display 

 Such treasures as well for the seeking repay; 

 And now, though so dreary and lifeless they seem. 

 We shall find that with mj'riad beauties they teem. 

 Where the shadows lie deepest, the frost lingers yet. 

 And out to the meadows he steals at sunset; 

 But sooner each morn the sun puts him to flight. 

 And quickly unbinds what he bound in the night. 

 On north hiil-sides the ice-bearded cliffs are yet dripping, 

 And sunbeams from lingering snow-banks are sipping. 

 Each effort of summer the winter withstands, 

 And checks every bud that too early expands. 

 It would seem the most desolate time of the year. 

 If we knew not that nature's new birth were so near. 

 A few pendant leaves rustle withered and sere, 

 Only making the forest more death-like appear. 

 Overhead, 'mongst the whispering branches are heard 

 ^olian melodies, mournful and weird. 

 And swaying and creaking, the lonely trees seem 

 To be mourning the loss of their leafage so green, 

 Which the sullen old j^ear wnth his autumn blasts beat 

 From their branches and downward cast dead at their feet. 

 Yet, though robbed of their summer adornments, how grand 

 In their massive proportions the forest trees stand! 

 Moored deep in the earth, still erect are their forms. 

 Though against them have beaten a thousand wild storms. 

 And the ponderous arches of nature's own shrine 

 Spring upward with never a keystone to bind, 

 Supporting, it seems, the blue dome overhead, 



