" Or mira 1'alto provreder divino : 

 Che Tuno e Tatro aspetto della fede 

 Igualmente empiera questo giardino." 



DANTE. 



MAY 



'T^HE hedges are wreathed with the " flower o' the May," 

 in the fields, in garden and along the hedgerows. To 

 use a line of Christina Rossetti's 



" Spring spreads one green lap of flowers." 



Looking from the brow of the hill one is especially struck 

 with the beauty of the blending tints of the trees' new foliage 

 as they stand massed together in the woodlands below ; there 

 is the bronze-like colour of the oak standing side by side with 

 the elm's vivid green ; against the dark pines wave the chest- 

 nuts, the foliage touched as with snow the white of their 

 spikes of blossom in full flower. One could very easily make 

 a lengthy list of the fair blossoms now to be found in the 

 *' green lap of Spring " ; and, as we behold, many a poet's 

 praise of them and of this fair season comes to memory. 

 May's blossoms are ever glorious in colour and perfect in 

 form ; indeed, no artificial colour, however beautiful, can 

 surpass the tint of flower which each passing season bestows 

 upon its certain blooms. At the present time no two more 

 exquisite colours are there than the purple iris and the glossy 

 gold of the buttercups ; lay them side by side and the con- 

 trast is very fine ; no fabric of royal robe, however finely 

 woven or finished in texture, approaches their soft petals 

 woven of light and air. 



The handsome comfrey (Symphytum officinale) has put 

 forth its white flowers, and the herb-bennet (Gjum urbdnum) 



