10 FAMILIAR WILL FLOWERS. 



streams that, as they dash over their stony beds or 

 fall in glittering- cascades, scatter their spray over 

 the banks, and cause a constant humidity that is 

 particularly welcome to many species of flowering plants 

 and ferns. The meadow craneVbill again may often 

 be found in woods and thickets, spots that at once 

 strike us, on entering them from the hot and dusty 

 road, with a feeling of ordinarily delicious contrast, 

 though the chilly dampness that may at times exert a 

 too penetrating power is as injurious to most plants as 

 it is disagreeable to ourselves. When growing under the 

 circumstances we have pointed out, the plant, though 

 possibly more luxurious than when found by the road- 

 side, has not in autumn the beautiful richness and 

 variety of colour in the foliage that is seen in those that 

 have been more exposed to the direct rays of the sun, that 

 great cause of all lovely colour, whether in the sevenfold 

 tints of the bow in heaven, the soft bloom of the ripening 

 peach, or in the commonest wayside blossom that turns 

 its little earth-born stars to the great source of life, and 

 light, and beauty. 



The meadow craneVbill may chiefly be found in most 

 parts of southern and central England; in the north of 

 England and in southern Scotland it may also be met with ; 

 while in the north of Scotland and throughout Ireland, 

 the latter a land that in many places would appear to 

 be especially adapted to its favourite conditions of 

 growth, it is quite unknown. From its beauty it is 

 not uncommonly transferred to the garden. The plant 

 will 'ordinarily be found in flower by about the end 

 of May, and lasts in fair blossom for some considerable 

 time, a few isolated specimens here and there being pro- 



