188 A SPRING RELISH. 



found the first blue violet and the great spurred violet 

 on the 19th (saw the little violet-colored moth dan- 

 cing about the woods the same day). I plucked my 

 first dandelion on a meadow slope on the 23d, and in 

 the woods, protected by a high ledge, my first trillium. 

 During the month at least twenty native shrubs and 

 wild-flowers bloomed in my vicinity, which is an un- 

 usual showing for April. 



There are many things left for May, but nothing 

 fairer, if as fair, as the first flower, the hepatica. I 

 find I have never admired this little firstling half 

 enough. When at the maturity of its charms, it is 

 certainly the gem of the woods. What an individu- 

 ality it has ! No two clusters alike ; all shades and 

 sizes ; some are snow-white, some pale pink, with just 

 a tinge of violet, some deep purple, others the purest 

 blue, others blue touched with lilac. A solitary blue- 

 purple one, fully expanded and rising over the brown 

 leaves or the green moss, its cluster of minute anthers 

 showing like a group of pale stars on its little firma- 

 ment, is enough to arrest and hold the dullest eye. 

 Then, as I have elsewhere stated, there are individ- 

 ual hepaticas, or individual families among them, that 

 are sweet-scented. The gift seems as capricious as 

 the gift of genius in families. You cannot tell which 

 the fragrant ones are till you try them. Sometimes 

 it is the large white ones, sometimes the large purple 

 ones, sometimes the small pink ones. The odor is 

 faint, and recalls that of the sweet violets. A cor- 

 respondent, who seemi to have carefully observed 



