18 FAMILIAR iriLD FLOWERS. 



little or nothing of the butterfly; whether we had ex- 

 pected to see a plant laden with red admirals, peacocks, 

 or wood argus, we scarcely stopped to inquire; suffice 

 it only to say that in our case, as probably in many 

 others, the reality did not bear out the somewhat hazy and 

 nebulous anticipations formed. Those, however, who find 

 the present flower have no such cause of complaint, for 

 there can be no doubt that it fully bears out its name, and 

 in so doing at the same time calls attention to one of its 

 most beautiful and picturesque features. The spotted 

 orchis is one of the later species ; many of the kinds may 

 be looked for in April and May, but this rarely appears 

 before June. One accepts a statement of this kind very 

 much as a matter of course ; yet, when we give a moment's 

 thought to it, one cannot but be greatly impressed with the 

 sense of the unfailing working of nature's laws. As the 

 year revolves, plant after plant appears in orderly sequence, 

 and each has its appointed time. The snowdrops lead the 

 goodly throng, and all their fair successors are marshalled 

 in their set places throughout the changing seasons. This 

 fixity of law in nature is one of the most striking charac- 

 teristics. We see it again in the fact that one spotted 

 orchis is in all essential points just like any other spotted 

 orchis, though they may be separated by a space of 

 500 miles, or by an interval of 500 years. The primroses 

 of last year are in all essential points their delicate 

 colour and odour, and all else that make them so attractive 

 just such as nestled in the undergrowth when our ances- 

 tors were painted savages, just such as year by year till 

 climatic influences change, or the dissolution of all things 

 comes shall spring up at the opening of each i-ecurring year, 

 to the delight of generations yet unborn. Empires totter 



