226 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



rosy glow, this is reduced to crushed-raspberry color 

 as it fades away on the wooded slopes beneath, and 

 down in the deep ravines is a whitish, violet-ultra- 

 marine shadow too soft to suggest in the remotest 

 way the crudeness of true purple. 



In broad daylight the flower-decked meadows 

 covered with tall, ripe grass are seldom green ; in- 

 stead, we have buff, yellow, yellow-green, salmon - 

 pink, whitish pink, and shadowy lilac again. In 

 early June the golden-green patches of buttercups 

 resemble the colors on the humming bird's back. 

 In later June masses of ox-eye daisies throw a dainty 

 pinkish white tint over the grass, and in July the 

 wild Canada lily embroiders it with a powdered pat- 

 tern in tawny yellow. But I never see any brown 

 or gray on the meadow ; it is always brimful of 

 color, from the glare of light on the white daisies 

 to the lilac shadows of the tall, graceful elms. Even 

 in winter, when it is covered with a mantle of snow, 

 it is still rich in color, for its borders are set with 

 the almost vivid red stems of the red osier (Cornus 

 stolonifera\ its pure white is accented by the irides- 

 cent blue-black of half a dozen stray crows ; and best 

 of all, just before the sun sets (however freezingly 

 cold the effect may be), the white is tinged with yel- 

 low, and the broad shadow of the opposite hill which 

 is creeping over it is intensely purple exactly the 



