EARLY FLOWERS. 99 



azure whiteness of the corolla. The houstonia has 

 sometimes been called starwort, a name that corre 

 sponds very justly with its, general habits and appear 

 ance. In April one or two solitary flowers of this 

 species may be seen peeping out from the green herbage, 

 as in early evening a few stars are seen twinkling 

 through the diminishing light. These continue to mul 

 tiply, until they glitter in the meads and valleys like the 

 heavenly host at midnight; and then by degrees they 

 slowly disappear, until June scatters them from the 

 face of the earth, as morning melts away the starry 

 lights in the firmament. 



It may seem remarkable that the earliest spring 

 flowers that corne up under a frosty sky, and are often 

 enveloped in snow, should, notwithstanding this appar 

 ently hardening exposure, exceed almost all others in 

 delicacy. Such are the anemones, the houstonia, and 

 the bellwort, among our indigenous plants, and such 

 the crocus, the snowdrop, and the lily of the valley, 

 among the exotics. The spring flowers are likewise, 

 for the most part, more powerfully and more sweetly 

 scented than those of other seasons. Even the aments 

 that hang from the willow, the poplar, and the sweet- 

 fern, are more fragrant than the aments of the oak, the 

 beech, and the chestnut, which appear a month later. 

 The sweet-scented vernal grass, (anthoxanthum odora- 

 tum,) one of our earliest grasses, is exceeded by no 

 species in fragrance. Many of the small flowers of 

 spring that seem, when examined singly, to be nearly 

 scentless, are found to be very fragrant when collected 

 into bunches. I have observed this fact of some of the 

 violets, of the two-leaved Solomon's seal, and some 

 other small flowers. Though we cannot regard their 

 superior fragrance as an unexceptionable trait in the 



