PIONEERS OF PLANTS. 159 



They are called whirligigs and boatmen, and are fine divers 

 and swimmers. 



All the beetles have hard, shining coats of mail. These 

 are only the covers to their wings, and when they want to 

 fly they open the wing covers in the middle and spread out 

 their soft, gauzy wings that they keep folded up under- 

 neath. 



Pioneer of Plants. 



lyovers of outdoor life have only good words for that 

 strong-scented denizen of swamps, the skunk-cabbage. 

 This plant, hardy, brave, undaunted in any weather, 

 breaks the ice about it even in January, and the careful ob- 

 server may find it at that unpropitious season already mak- 

 ing its preparations for the spring. The author of "The 

 Brook Book " sa5^s : 



" One cold day in early February, I was prowling along 

 the underbrush near ni}^ favorite cabbage patch, when I 

 became aware that some one else was also crunching about 

 in the snow there. This person, dressed like myself in 

 short skirt and heavy boots, was intent on some odd busi- 

 ness which I could not at first determine. She was bend- 

 ing down, thrusting her hand into the snow, and I could 

 see that she held some small gleaming instrument. It 

 proved to be a thermometer. 



" 'Good morning! ' said I. As she returned my greet- 

 ing, she thrust the thermometer down into an opening in 

 the snow. 



' ' ' May I look ?' I asked, suiting the action to the word. 



"The opening in the snow had not been made by her 

 hand, as I supposed. It was rounded smoothly, and down 

 at the bottom I could see the top of a skunk-cabbage hood, 



"How came the air-holes there? What did the ther- 

 mometer mean? I looked inquiringly at my new friend. 



