EARLY FLOWERS. 97 



Among the vernal flowers are usually classed all 

 those, which, in propitious seasons, are expanded dur 

 ing the months of April and May, and mostly become 

 extinct before the days have obtained their greatest 

 length. Within this period the most delicate and in 

 teresting flowers of the whole year come to perfection, 

 commencing with the anemones and violets, that bring 

 along in their rear whole myriads of bellworts, cornels, 

 ginsengs, saxifrages, and columbines, until the proces 

 sion is closed by the wild geranium, that leads on the 

 still more brilliant host of summer. The vernal flowers 

 are mostly herbaceous and minute. They grow in 

 sheltered situations, on the southern slopes of declivities 

 or the sunny borders of a wood, and require but a short 

 period of heat and sunshine to perfect their blossoms. 

 They are generally pale in their tints, many of them 

 white, but commonly tinged with delicate shades of 

 blue or lilac. The anemones of our fields are true 

 vernal flowers, and there is hardly a solitary one to be 

 seen after the middle of June. Such, also, are the 

 most of the violets, the bellworts, and the Solomon's 

 seals. There are some spring flowers, however, that 

 remain in bloom during a great part of summer, until 

 they lose all their charms by constantly intruding them 

 selves upon our notice. Such are the common butter 

 cups, which are favorites with children when they first 

 appear^ but shine like gilded toys, and symbolize no- 

 charming sentiment to endear them to our sight. 



The anemones, on the other hand, present in their 

 habits and appearance emblems of many tender and 

 poetic images. One of the earliest of these to be 

 found in our woods is the liverwort, (hepatica triloba,) 

 appearing on the sunny slope of a hill that is protected 

 by woods, and continuing to put forth its delicate 



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