AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



one whole branch in leaf, but one only, and with small 

 trees, growing in the shade of their fathers, fully clad 

 in April's livery. The pied effect of the verdure against 

 the prevailing purple-brown tones suggests green veils 

 hanging out to dry. Perhaps nowhere in England may 

 such carpets of violets be found as cover the floor of 

 Buckinghamshire beech-woods to-day. But the glory of 

 the moment is the cherry-blossom, the cherries tower- 

 ing up like pyramids of snow. 



THE dainty wood-sorrel is sometimes known as Alle- 

 luia, also as cuckoo's or gowk's meat, as it 

 The blossoms when the cuckoo comes. It is 



Cuckoo's remarkable among flowers in that both its 

 Flower blossoms and leaves obviously fall asleep, 

 against rain and nightfall ; the flowers fold- 

 ing their petals and hanging their heads, the three 

 leaflets of a leaf folding downwards, as if to keep warm 

 by cuddling. The property of sleep is believed to reside 

 in minute pink swellings at the base of each leaflet. 

 Neither the flowers of the violet nor the wood-sorrel, 

 as we know them, produce seeds, but are succeeded by 

 seed-bearing flowers, which do not open; so far an 

 unexplained mystery of botany. 



IN several counties the fortunes of the magpies are in 



the ascendant: on the Sussex downs their 



Magpie numbers multiply, and in many of the 



Fortunes Buckinghamshire beech- woods one is rarely 



out of hearing of Mag's guttural chatter. The 



great nests are to-day a very conspicuous feature of the 



beech-woods of the Chilterns. Mag's eggs much like a 



jackdaw's show her affinity with jackdaws, rooks, and 



46 



