THE LANE TO SPRING 



THE interregnum between snowdrop and white violet 

 is filled by the humble green dog's-mercury, 

 Green a plant humbler even than the green mos- 



Flozvers chatel, named adoxa " without glory." 

 Botanists dub such green flowers, and such 

 as the spurges, as degenerates; thus adoxa, they say, 

 once sported a gay white or pink corolla. But a green 

 flower may be wise in its generation. Adoxa, having no 

 bright colours, avoids attention from undesirable in- 

 sects seeking its honey, as it cheats the birds by bending 

 its fruit-stalk to hide its seeds below its leaves. And 

 dog's-mercury, at least, has claimed our special human 

 admiration for the very greenness of the carpet it now 

 spreads in the woods, speeding thoughts to cuckoo- 

 time. 



THAT we have passed far along the lane to Spring is 

 shown by any country cottage garden, with 

 Gilliflowers a goodly display of snowdrop and crocus, 

 of primroses, plain and coloured, and wall- 

 flowers precociously in bloom still happily known by 

 their pleasing name of gilliflowers. Though cottagers' 

 favourites, wallflowers never seem more happy than 

 when living up to their name by growing on the walls 

 of crumbling abbeys and castles, from which habit they 

 are the emblem, in the language of flowers, of " Friend- 

 ship in adversity." Florists have given varieties grand 

 names, like Belvoir Castle, but an old Devon name for 

 a deep-hued sort, often planted on the ledges of cottage 

 windows, is more forceful Bloody Warrior, signifying 

 that it stands sentinel to guard the home. The botanist's 

 name, " cheiranthus," handflower, alludes to the gilli- 

 flowers' service as nosegays. 

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