146 WAKE -ROBIN 



than in any other. Here the boys go, too, troops 

 of them, of a Sunday, to bathe and prowl around, 

 and indulge the semi-barbarous instincts that still 

 lurk within them. Life, in all its forms, is most 

 abundant near water. The rank vegetation nurtures 

 the insects, and the insects draw the birds. The 

 first week in March, on some southern slope where 

 the sunshine lies warm and long, I usually find the 

 hepatica in bloom, though with scarcely an inch of 

 stalk. In the spring runs, the skunk cabbage pushes 

 its pike up through the mould, the flower appearing 

 first, as if Nature had made a mistake. 



It is not till about the 1st of April that many 

 wild flowers may be looked for. By this time the 

 hepatica, anemone, saxifrage, arbutus, houstonia, 

 and bloodroot may be counted on. A week later, 

 the claytonia or spring beauty, water-cress, violets, 

 a low buttercup, vetch, corydalis, and potentilla 

 appear. These comprise most of the April flowers, 

 and may be found in great profusion in the Kock 

 Creek and Piny Branch region. 



In each little valley or spring run, some one spe- 

 cies predominates. I know invariably where to look 

 for the first liverwort, and where the largest and 

 finest may be found. On a dry, gravelly, half- 

 wooded hill-slope the bird's-foot violet grows in 

 great abundance, and is sparse in neighboring dis- 

 tricts. This flower, which I never saw in the 

 North, is the most beautiful and showy of all the 

 violets, and calls forth rapturous applause from all 

 persons who visit the woods. It grows in little 



