204 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



important knowledge and derive a moral hint, which may- 

 teach him that the sum of our enjoyments is proportioned to 

 the simplicity of our habits and pursuits ; and that this poor 

 herb woman, who lives under the open windows of heaven, 

 enjoys more happiness, with all her poverty, than many 

 envied persons who are prisoned Jn a palace and shackled 

 with gold. 



In the early part of the month he finds but few floweis 

 to reward his search, and he watches every little group of 

 children he meets to inquire if they have been successful. 

 By consulting with them he often learns the locality of a rare 

 plant, a new phase in the aspect of nature, or discovers some 

 forgotten charm that used to hover about certain old familiar 

 scenes, or that was connected with some once familiar object, 

 to whose pleasing influence he had become blunted, but 

 which is now revived in all its former intensity, by witnessing 

 its effects on the susceptible minds of the young. Not long 

 after the first of the month many amentaceous shrubs are 

 covered with their flowing drapery of blossoms. Along the 

 borders of the old stone walls, and outside of the woods, the 

 hazel groves display some of the earliest flowers of the year. 

 Their light green aments, before the leaves have started from 

 their hybernacles, hang like fringe from their numerous 

 branches ; and attracted by their odors the honey bees and 

 other early insects have already commenced their mellifluous 

 operations among their flowery racemes. While the hazel 

 thus adorns the edges of the woods and the rustic waysides, 

 the hills are covered with sweet fern bushes, whose flowers 

 diffuse a spicy odor that never dies out from their foliage. 



We are not obliged to go far from our door steps to see the 

 evidences of reviving vegetation. The elms are fully em- 

 broidered with blossoms of a bright chocolate hue ; and on 

 account of the graceful droop of their branches, the flowers 

 seem to have a pendulous character, resembling long tassels 

 of fringe, whose sobriety of hue corresponds with the general 

 sombre tints of the landscape. The red maple, arrayed in 

 a more brilliant vesture, and in the ruddy hues of a summer 

 evening cloud, when rising up among the still leafless trees 



