May and Early June 



famed and much-rhymed '' little flower" 

 of Wordsworth, which has never been 

 naturalized in this country and is not 

 even alhed to our celandine, a plant of 

 foreign extraction itself. 



If any yellow flowers were condemned 

 to banishment, I think we could best 

 spare the Mustards. The winter-cress, or 

 herb of St. Barbara, is the first yellow 

 Mustard to appear, and is so associated 

 with a rubbish heap beyond the wall of 

 some neglected garden, that I doubt if 

 we would regret its disappearance. But 

 even if without sympathy for the Mustards 

 as a family, it is well to learn to recog- 

 nize them at sight, and this we can usual- 

 ly do by their four white or yellow petals, 

 which are so placed as to form a cross 

 (giving the tribe its Latin name, Crucife- 

 rce), and by the pods, which often ap- 

 pear before all the flowers have passed away. 



More attractive than the winter-cress, 

 and plentiful now, is the golden ragwort, 



37 



