VERNAL WOOD-SCENERY. 41 



plain the hues of the early flowers, and spreads a charm- 

 ing variety of warm and mellow tints upon the surface 

 of the wood. 



In treating of vernal tints, I shall refer chiefly to ef- 

 fects produced, without the agency of flowers, by that 

 general coloring of the leaves and spray which may" 

 be considered the counterpart of the splendor of autumn. 

 In the opening of the year many inconspicuous plants 

 are brought suddenly into notice by their lively contrast 

 with the dark and faded complexion of the ground. The 

 mosses, lichens, and liverworts perform, therefore, an im- 

 portant part in the limning of the vernal landscape. On 

 the bald hills the surfaces of rocks that project above the 

 soil,' and are covered with these plants, are brighter than 

 the turf that surrounds them, with its seared grasses 

 and herbage. They display circles of painted lichens, 

 varying from an olive-gray to red and yellow, and tufts 

 of green mosses which surpass the fairest artificial lawn 

 in the perfection of their verdure. Many of the flower- 

 less plants are evergreen, especially the ferns and lyco- 

 podiums, and nearly all are earlier than the higher 

 forms of vegetation in ripening their peculiar hues. 



The first remarkable vernal tinting of the forest is 

 manifest in the spray of different trees. As soon as the 

 sap begins to flow, every little twig becomes brightened 

 on the surface, as if it had been glossed by art. The 

 swelling of the bark occasioned by the flow of sap gives 

 the whole mass a livelier hue. This appearance is very 

 evident in the peach-tree, in willows and poplars, in the 

 snowy mespilus, and in all trees with a long and slender 

 spray. Hence the ashen green of the poplar, the golden 

 green of the willow, and the dark crimson of the peach- 

 tree, the wild rose, and the red osier, are perceptibly 

 heightened by the first warm days of spring. Nor is this 

 illumination confined to the species I have named ; for 



