March — Yellow Iris. 7 7 



ally so when it displays its regal flowers, still one 

 welcomes it in March with a new sense of its value 

 when the young pale-green blades stand straight out 

 of the water, their points about six inches above the 

 surface. There is, in truth, plenty to be seen in the 

 young vegetation of the foreground, and there are more 

 leaves everywhere than we think ; but most of them 

 are so small yet that they escape attention individually, 

 and only please the eye in the mass by a general sense 

 of reviving greenness. So it is with the tiny green leaves 

 of furze, an innumerable multitude, which as yet, how- 

 ever, seem less numerous than its thorns. And there 

 are plants which will be of great size and splendor in 

 their maturity, and which have already quite a mature 

 look on a much smaller scale, so that any one who did 

 not know them would think they were satisfactory 

 enough already. The young soapwort is an example 

 of this ; few young plants are better worth drawing, 

 for the leaves take curves almost as good as those of 

 fine naturally-dried leafage, and there is an interesting 

 transition of color from the fresh green of the well- 

 formed leaves down to purple near the root. Other 

 plants, which will never reach any great height or size, 

 are of consequence, because their leaves, though few in 

 number, and close to the ground, happen to be rela- 

 tively of rather large dimensions ; such a plant is the 

 arum, which is often visible now in damp nooks with 

 more than a mere promise of verdure yet to come. 



I have said something about the beauty of the 

 English word Willow. Other plants are less happy in 



