CHAPTER II. 



EARLY SPRING. 



THE essential sign of spring in northern latitudes is 

 the swelling of the buds upon the trees, and those of 

 the sturdy bushes which the husbandman uses for 

 hedges. The appearance of flowers, except to the 

 experienced eye, cannot always be depended upon. 

 Many that would be thought heralds of the new season 

 are in reality relics of the year that has departed, 

 epitaphs on the summer of six months before, 

 memorials rather than prophecies. Such is the case 

 with the wall-flower, which is often seen plentifully in 

 bloom in January, unless the winter be very severe, 

 the succession of flowers from side-shoots having pro- 

 ceeded uninterruptedly perhaps since the previous 

 May. This long-protracted flow of bloom is usually 

 attributable to the flowers being gathered for love- 

 tokens or personal pleasure, and thus hindered from 

 fulfilling the grand purpose for which all flowers are 

 in every case developed, namely, the origination of 

 seed from which new plants shall be reared, to take 

 the place of the parents, when the latter lie withered 

 and dead. As long as a plant is hindered from pro- 



