SUDDEN SUMMER 43 



tender care. We expect the Trillium to remain 

 modestly folded awaiting her turn, and the Dog- 

 tooth Violet to be content with the faint suggestions 

 of colour on its delicately mottled leaves. The 

 Spring Beauty, too, though among the earliest, is 

 generally content to await its due order, and the 

 Trailing Arbutus, reclining cosily among the leaves 

 and litter of the past year, may open its hidden buds 

 at any time, according to the whims and fancies of 

 the season. But now the favourites have all come 

 forth at once. Long ago, as the flower season runs, 

 the Skunk Cabbage, glorying in its lusty strength, 

 pushed its way up through the lingering ice in the 

 thawing bogs, regardless of the spring's delay. But 

 this vigorous leader was not followed by the usual 

 timid procession. Delay and disappointment marked 

 the unfolding of the year until restraint became 

 intolerable and the vigour of quickening life threw 

 it off. 



Where the sloping hillside seems to quiver in the ' 

 reviving warmth of awakened spring the Hepaticas 

 are relieving the dark dull ground with touches of 

 delicate colour, from white and the palest of pink 

 through many varying shades to pale blue. Trilliums 

 are wide awake, too, not at all disconcerted by the 

 general departure from established orders of prece- 

 dence. The dainty sprays of the Spring Beauty 

 appear like a belated sprinkling of snow on the leaf- 



