416 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



leaves, the primrose flowers appear, shyly at first, 

 then, growing bolder, crane their long, graceful 

 stems to view the scene. Where the rays of the 

 spring sun rest on the southern banks, the blue, 

 and still sweeter-scented white, violets peer through 

 the short grass, at first so * wee and modest ' that 

 one may pass them by unseen or crush them under 

 foot. Tall sprays of white blossom in the hedge- 

 rows mark where the blackthorn warns us that 

 the Frost King, ' in his ice-embroidered robes,' has 

 not yet laid aside his sceptre. The daffodils, 

 which are bursting into bloom, must needs have 

 their ' mouthful of snow,' or the summer will be 

 short and sunless. The kingcups, too, are grow- 

 ing impatient, fearful lest they should be too late 

 to see the world, and be elbowed out by the grass 

 which has already covered over the crimson fairy- 

 goblets in the hedgerows. 



The bluebells are mingling with the delicate 

 white flowers of the wood-sorrel in the copses, 

 and the cow-parsley is growing tall and rank, but 

 ere long each spray will be tipped with starry 

 splashes of white, a veritable wealth of summer 

 snow. The buttercups, the most spring-like of 

 all wild-flowers, grow apace with the grass, and 

 are yellowing the pastures with their fresh and 

 burnished blossoms. 



When the bushes are white with the sweetly- 

 scented May-blossoms, the flowers of the forget- 

 me-not gleam in many a water-meadow and by 

 the riverside. A little later and the yellow iris, 



