228 FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 
But plants are subject to other whims not 
less pronouneed than these which have to do 
with the choice of a dwelling-place. We 
may call it the general rule that leaves come 
before flowers; but how many of our trees 
and shrubs reverse this order! The singu- 
lar habit of the witch-hazel, whose blossoms 
open as the leaves fall, may be presumed to 
be familiar to all readers; and hardly less 
curious is the freak of the chestnut, which, 
almost if not quite alone among our amen- 
taceous trees, does not put on its splendid 
coronation robes till late in June, and is 
frequently at the height of its magnificence 
in mid-July. What a pretty piece of vari- 
-ety have we, again, in the diurnal and the 
nocturnal bloomers! For my own part, 
being a watcher of birds, and therefore al- 
most of necessity an early stirrer abroad, I 
profess a special regard for such plants as 
save their beauty for night-time and cloudy 
weather. The evening primrose is no favor- 
ite with most people, I take it, but I seldom 
fail to pick a blossom or two with the dew 
on them. Those to whom [I carry them usu- 
ally exclaim as over some wonderful exotic, 
though the primrose is an inveterate haunter 
