" The cuckoo's parting cry, 



From the wet field, through the vext garden^trees, 

 Comes with the volleying rain and tossing breeze/* 



MATTHEW ARNOLD. 



JUNE 



^TATURE has donned her brightest robe ; over all gleam 

 -*^ tranced skies and golden sunshine. The wealth of 

 flowers and many joyful birds make this month the most 

 blissful of the whole year. The fields Nature's own garden 

 are full to overflowing with floral gems. The watercourses 

 are bright with their own lovely order of plants. Foremost 

 are the blossoms of the water-crowfoot (R. aquatilis\ whose 

 white petals bejewel the stream's breast as with pearls ; among 

 the curious leaves of the arrow-head (Sagittaria sagittifolia) 

 will soon be glittering its blush-coloured blossoms. Two 

 other lovely aquatic plants now in bloom are the flowering 

 rush (Butomus umbellatus\ sending up a towering stalk crowned 

 with its umbel of pink blooms, and the water-plantain (Alisma 

 plantago), its delicate-branched stalk of lilac petals making 

 bright the green growth of the stream. The forget-me-not 

 (Myosotis palustris), the best known and most prized of all 

 aquatics, is now in its beauty, and sweet it is to walk by 

 stream where the dragon-flies glitter among its blue blossoms 

 and emerald foliage, nourished by the kiss of the water. 

 Flowers of the stream, how symbolical you are ! If we will 

 but see them, ever grow the flowers of joy in all the tearful 

 streams that flow through our lives ! Still the days over- 

 flow with roses. How lovely they make the dawn, when, 

 filled with the silver tears of night, sweet with the morn's 

 caress, they send out their souls in a musky breath ; the 

 world seems less sin-filled when we see such works of 



beauty peeping from out their arbour homes, waving upon 



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