APRIL. 75 



profusion of glossy purple stems, like so many hairs, termi- 

 nated with the peculiar flower of the plant ; and long stripes 

 of verdure mark the progress of the new-born rivulets, as 

 they pursue their irregular course down the hillside into 

 the valleys. But the damp groimds, frequently almost im- 

 passable from standing water, are interspersed witli little 

 dry knolls covered with mosses and lycopodiums, where 

 the early flow^ers of spring delight to nestle, embosomed 

 in their soft verdure. Upon these evergreen mounds the 

 fringed polygala spreads a beautiful hue of crimson ; 

 and while gathering its flowers, we discover, here and 

 there, a delicate wood-anemone, with its mild eyes not 

 yet open to the light of day. But so few flowers are 

 abroad that the bee when it comes forth in quest of 

 honey must feel like one who is lost and wandering in 

 space. It can revel only in gardens where the sweet- 

 scented flowers of another clime spread abroad a perfume 

 that is but a false signal of the weather of its adopted 

 climate. 



The odors that perfume the air in the latter part of this 

 month are chiefly exhaled from the unfolding buds of the 

 flowering trees and shrubs, and from pine woods. The 

 balm of Gilead and other poplars, while the scales are 

 dropping from their hibernacles, to loose the young leaves 

 and flowers from their confinement, afford the most grateful 

 of odors, and are a part of the peculiar incense of spring. 

 But there are exhalations from the soil in April, when 

 the ploughman is turning his furrows, that afford an 

 agreeable sensation of freshness, almost like fragrance, 

 resembling the scent of the cool breezes, which, wafted 

 over beds of dulses and sea-weeds, wdien the tide is low, 

 often rise up suddenly in the lieat of summer. 



As April advances, the familiar bluebirds are busy 

 among the hollows of old trees, where they rear their 

 young secure from depredation. Multitudes of them, seen 



