26 SIGNS AND SEASONS 



rare case of the arrow-leaved violet, above referred 

 to. The earliest yellow flowers, like the dandelion 

 and yellow violets, are not fragrant. Later in the 

 season yellow is frequently accompanied with fra- 

 grance, as in the evening primrose, the yellow lady's- 

 slipper, horned bladderwort, and others. 



My readers probably remember that on a former 

 occasion I have mildly taken the poet Bryant to 

 task for leading his readers to infer that the early 

 yellow violet was sweet-scented. In view of the 

 capriciousness of the perfume of certain of our wild 

 flowers, I have during the past few years tried 

 industriously to convict myself of error in respect 

 to this flower. The round-leaved yellow violet was 

 one of the earliest and most abundant wild flowers 

 in the woods where my youth was passed, and 

 whither I still make annual pilgrimages. I have 

 pursued it on mountains and in lowlands, in 

 "beechen woods" and amid the hemlocks; and 

 while, with respect to its earliness, it overtakes the 

 hepatica in the latter part of April, as do also the 

 dog's-tooth violet and the claytonia, yet the first 

 hepaticas, where the two plants grow side by side, 

 bloom about a week before the first violet. And I 

 have yet to find one that has an odor that could be 

 called a perfume. A handful of them, indeed, has 

 a faint, bitterish smell, not unlike that of the dan- 

 delion in quality ; but if every flower that has a 

 smell is sweet-scented, then every bird that makes 

 a noise is a songster. 



On the occasion above referred to, I also dis- 



