14 PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 



as in the tropics, where the procession is continuous, 

 we in England have in reality all four periods side by 

 side. Nature has so ordered her economy, that spring, 

 summer, autumn, winter, are all represented every 

 week in the year ; not necessarily in atmospheric phe- 

 nomena, but in the life-history of trees and plants. 

 The little cresses that dot the wheat-fields with white 

 flowers in March and April, have run through their 

 summer and closed their autumn, while to the lilies it 

 is only spring ; when the lilies stand white, and tall, 

 and fragrant in their queenly pride, the Michaelmas- 

 daisy and the farewell-summer are only bestirring 

 themselves ; and these, in their departure, are soon 

 forgotten in the chrysanthemums. And so it goes on, 

 life ever treading upon the steps of decay, all forces 

 and phenomena summed up in every circle in which 

 we may find ourselves. There is no retiring from the 

 presence of life, any more than, by taking the " wings 

 of the morning," that we may dwell in the "utter- 

 most parts of the earth," we escape from the Presence 

 that ruleth all. 



