1 62 May — Broom. 



regretted that this tree was not more common in this 

 fully developed form ; ordinarily it is a mere shrub six 

 or eight feet high, to be found in luxuriant hedges. As 

 a tree it shows splendidly in blossom, and the droop- 

 ing racemes of flowers are not only very graceful, but 

 fill the air with a delicious odQr. 



XXXI. 



Broom — Flaming Flowers of Broom — Fortissimo in Color — Pansies — 

 Their Variety — Heartsease — Poetry in the Language of Science — 

 Daisy — Buttercup — Disagreeable Scientific Name — Ranunculus 

 Aquatilis — Lousevvort — The Rose fortunate in her Name — Name 

 of the Horse-chestnut — Cuckoo-flower — Marsh Caltha — Names 

 of the Marsh Caltha. 



IT is rarely that I feel myself capable of any thing 

 like hostility towards any plant that grows wild in 

 our country, but there is one of them — the broom — 

 which tires my patience a little in its flowering season 

 by the very loudness of its self-assertion. At all other 

 times of the year it is welcome enough, and its pleasant 

 green is often most agreeable to the eye when very 

 little green of a cheerful kind is to be found upon any 

 thing else ; but really, when the yellow flowers are all 

 ablaze, I feel that we have too much of a good thing, 

 and are positively incapacitated for the enjoyment of 

 delicate color by this all but intolerable glare. A 

 strong pure color of this kind ought not to be sur- 



