SCENTED LEAVES. 



179 



year, though we cannot ascribe to solar action alone 

 all the gentle offspring of that time which " takes 

 the winds" with fragrance ; yet we could not expect, 

 because we have never found, that they come with- 

 out the seasonal light and heat. 



The fungi which spring up in the autumn, and 

 come like the vultures or the ravens of vegetation, 

 to prey upon the dead and the dying, put forth no 

 Jeaves, and expand no flowers, and they are rank. 

 They come not up in sweetness to the humblest of 

 the vernal tribes, from the leaves of many of which, 

 when they are dried without heating, we have some 

 of the sweetest of our scents. It is the scented ver- 

 nal grass which gives to new hay all that sweetness 

 which wiles old and young to the hay-field at ted- 

 ding time ; and the little woodruff which hides itself 

 in the grove is even more fragrant in its decay. 

 Yet they are both tiny and humble to look at : 



VERNAL GRASS. 



WOODRUFF. 



All these early plants are kept fresh and sweet 

 by the vernal showers ; but as deathi creeps over 

 the land, and even mushrooms and moulds begin to 

 decay, the torrents of autumn descend; and the 



