44 Flowers only flourish rightly in the garden of some one who 



loves them*** 



RUSKIN (Of Queen's Gardens'). 



MARCH 



It is the time when first flowers blow, 

 Bells by March breezes shaken ; 



When daffodils and jonquils glow, 

 And opal wind-flowers waken. 



The crocus-vases overflow 

 With sunlight ever passing ; 



The blue skies ever brighter glow, 

 In mere and river glassing. 



Tho' birds with west returning dreams, 

 In southern lands still linger, 



In leafless wood where sunlight gleams, 

 The thrush is March's singer. 



" Darker than darkest pansies, 

 . . . More black than ash-buds in the front of March." 



TENNYSON. 



TT7ITH the flowering of the ash, towards the end of 

 March, notice the swifter passing away of winter. 

 Long before the leaves appear, the ash has blossomed. Its 

 little tufts of flowers appear among the winged seeds of last 

 year, and are very elegant in construction. They are very 

 difficult to describe except in the technical language of the 

 botanist; but those who will take the trouble to examine 

 their beauty will be amply rewarded. Minute as they are, 

 they are very lovely, and the rich purple contrasts beautifully 

 with the delicate greenish-yellow tint of the flower stalks, 

 though when the tree is observed from a distance, the latter 

 are so closely concealed by the flowers as to be scarcely apparent. 

 In its earlier stage of growth, the mass of unexpanded flowers 

 is not unlike an irregularly granulated fruit, which eventually 



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