168 SPRING AT THE CAPITAL. 



The greatest novelty I found, however, 

 was the superb autumn weather, the bright, 

 strong, electric days, lasting well into Novem- 

 ber, and the general mildness of the entire 

 winter. Though the mercury occasionally 

 sinks to zero, yet the earth is never so seared 

 and blighted by the cold but that, in some 

 sheltered nook or corner, signs of vegetable 

 life still remain, which on a little encourage- 

 ment even asserts itself. I have found wild 

 flowers here every month in the year ; violets 

 in December, a single houstonia in January 

 (the little lump of earth upon which it stood 

 was frozen hard), and a tiny, weed -like 

 plant, with a flower almost microscopic in 

 its smallness, growing along gravelled walks 

 and in old ploughed fields in February. The 

 liverwort sometimes comes out as early as 

 the first week in March, and the little frogs 

 begin to pipe doubtfully about the same 

 time. Apricot-trees are usually in bloom on 

 All-Fool's-day, and the apple-trees on May- 

 day. By August, mother hen will lead forth 

 her third brood, and I had a March pullet 

 that came off with a family of her own in 

 September. Our calendar is made for this 

 climate. March is a spring month. One 

 is quite sure to see some marked and strik- 



