228 FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 



But plants are subject to other whims not 

 less pronounced than these which have to do 

 with the choice of a dwelling-place. We 

 may call it the general rule that leaves come 

 before flowers ; but how many of our trees 

 and shrubs reverse this order ! The singu- 

 lar habit of the witch-hazel, whose blossoms 

 open as the leaves fall, may be presumed to 

 be familiar to all readers; and hardly less 

 curious is the freak of the chestnut, which, 

 almost if not quite alone among our amen- 

 taceous trees, does not put on its splendid 

 coronation robes till late in June, and is 

 frequently at the height of its magnificence 

 in mid- July. What a pretty piece of vari- 

 ety have we, again, in the diurnal arid the 

 nocturnal bloomers! For my own part, 

 being a watcher of birds, and therefore al- 

 most of necessity an early stirrer abroad, I 

 profess a special regard for such plants as 

 save their beauty for night-time and cloudy 

 weather. The evening primrose is no favor- 

 ite with most people, I take it, but I seldom 

 fail to pick a blossom or two with the dew 

 on them. Those to whom I carry them usu- 

 ally exclaim as over some wonderful exotic, 

 though the primrose is an inveterate haunter 



