MARC H. 



67 



lected by the lover of Nature, and if not neg- 

 lected, then not forgotten j for they will stir 

 the springs of memory, and make us live over 

 again, times and seasons that we cannot, for the 

 pleasure and purity of our spirits, live over too 

 much. 



In March the shells of snails, which have 

 perished during the winter, will be seen in 

 great numbers, thrown out upon the banks by 

 the crumbling down of the mould, rendered 

 light by winter-frosts, and now loosened by the 

 dry, penetrating air. Where the larger species 

 of snails abound, their broken shells will also 

 be found in heaps under the hedges, where- 

 ever there is a stone, the throstles digging 

 them out and laying them on the stone, the 

 more readily to fracture them; a fact but 

 recently noticed by naturalists, but familiar to 

 the peasantry. Cottagers now gather the ten- 

 der-springing tops of nettles to make pot- 

 tage, considered by them a great purifier of the 

 blood. They also boil them instead of spinach, 

 as they do the tops of the wild hop, as a sub- 

 stitute for asparagus. But of all vegetables 

 that are cultivated, next to the potato, rhu- 

 barb has become, perhaps, the most valuable 

 to the poor, and pleasant to all. Of late its 



F2 



