EARLY SPRING. 17 



wort and the golden coltsfoot. These are genuine 

 spring blossoms, never appearing until the new year 

 has made a fair start, nor renewing their flowers in 

 summer and autumn. Being "weeds," and never 

 growing in pastures, they are seldom cropped or 

 gathered, so that the original preparation of bloom is 

 generally followed by successful result in seed. Very 

 pretty is it, when the last of the snow has dissolved 

 from the ground, to see the bright rays of the pilewort 

 among the half-withered relics of the past autumn 

 upon the hedgebank, and their young leaves spreading 

 a carpet over the heretofore brown earth in woods and 

 groves ; no less pretty is the spectacle of the colts- 

 foot, when it opens its yellow disk, formed of a hun- 

 dred rays as fine as needles, and this without a single 

 leaf to stand in contrast. Both flowers need the 

 sunshine in order that they may expand. On dull and 

 cloudy days they remain fast shut up, but with the 

 first kind beam from the sky they spread their little 

 petals, and glow as long as the atmosphere is genial. 

 The pilewort is not unlike a buttercup, but the leaves 

 are rounded and polished, and it rarely grows taller 

 than the breadth of one's hand. " Weed " it may be 

 in popular estimation, but the wood-pigeons do not so 

 lightly esteem it. The fleshy roots, shaped like little 

 round beans, lie very near the surface of the soil : the 

 rain washes the earth from them, and lays them bare, 

 2* 



