FLOWERS IN SEASON 



face, and before the trees have shot out a leaf 

 we have the crocus, white, blue and yellow, 

 chnging to the ground as if to retire if it had 

 miscalculated its chances for prosperity. In their 

 hardihood some of the spring flowers are de- 

 ceived, and are cut down in a night by sudden and 

 cruel freezes. We prize these drops and flashes 

 of color at more than their intrinsic worth, no 

 doubt, because they are the first. We should not 

 care a great deal for the anemone, the bloodroot 

 and the liverwort if we were to find them in the 

 summer. The opulence of loveliness that sur- 

 rounds us then would blind us to the modest and 

 brave little creatures that are its heralds. Still, 

 not all the spring flowers are small. There are 

 hyacinths, most prized of the bulbs, with spikes 

 of white, pink and pale-blue flowers, thick-set, 

 often double, deliciously fragrant, and fairly 

 lasting; for, so early in the year few insects have 

 arrived, and it is the effort of flowers to last until 

 the insects, seeking nectar, fertilize them and 

 *' set " the seed. Then we have the freesia, fine, 

 delicate, well-nigh as fragrant as the hyacinth. 

 Other first appearances that inaugurate the eight 

 months of bloom are those of the grape hya- 

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