A BUNCH OF HERBS. 211 



He might see ten thousand marsh marigolds, or ten 

 times ten thousand Houstonias, but they would not 

 toss in the breeze, and they would not be sweet- 

 scented like the daffodils. 



It is to be remembered, too, that in the moister 

 atmosphere of England the same amount of fragrance 

 would be much more noticeable than with us. Think 

 how our sweet bay (Magnolia glauca), or our pink 

 azalea, or our white alder (Clethea), to which they 

 have nothing that corresponds, would perfume that 

 heavy, vapor-laden air. 



In the woods and groves in England, the wild 

 hyacinth grows very abundantly in spring, and, in, 

 places, the air is loaded with its fragrance. In our 

 woods, a species of dicentra, commonly called squirrel 

 corn, has nearly the same perfume, and its racemes 

 ;>f nodding whitish flowers, tinged with red, are quite 

 as pleasing to the eye, but it is a shyer, less abundant 

 plant. When our children go to the fields in April 

 and May, they can bring home no wild flowers as 

 pleasing as the sweet English violet, and cowslip, and 

 yellow daffodil, and wall-flower; and, when British, 

 children go to the woods at the same season, they can 

 load their hands and baskets with nothing that com- 

 pares with our trailing arbutus, or, later in the season, 

 with our azaleas ; and, when their boys go fishing or 

 boating in summer, they can wreathe themselves with 

 nothing that approaches our pond-lily. 



There are upward of thirty species of fragrant 

 native wild flowers and flowering shrubs and trees in 



