42 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



spring, each ending in a single golden head, out without 

 any foliage except some small brownish scales, much like 

 those of sprouting asparagus shoots. After the blossoms 

 are all over, the large woolly leaves begin to appear, and 

 occupy themselves during the summer in collecting 

 starch over again to fill the root for next spring's flower- 

 heads. At my feet, once more, I see a mass of bright 

 glossy heart-shaped leaves, interspersed with the brilliant 

 yellow blossoms of the smaller celandine " gilt-cups" 

 the village children call them ; and the celandine also 

 enforces the same principle. It is one of the earliest 

 flowers to appear in spring ; while most of its congeners, 

 the crowfoots and buttercups, do not show themselves 

 till July or August ; and if you grub it up you will soon 

 see the reason why. The buttercups have simple thread- 

 like roots ; but the lesser celandine has a lot of roundish 

 mealy tubes, which it renews from year to year, and 

 which form the reserve-fund on which it draws for its 

 early blossoms. These habits of storing starchy food- 

 stuffs are to certain plants just what the analogous habits 

 of laying by honey, hoarding nuts, or gathering grain are 

 to the bee, the squirrel, and the harvesting ants, among 

 animals. 



Turning from these little wayside blossoms to the large 

 and conspicuous spring flowers, such as the daffodil, the 

 narcissus, the snowdrop, the hyacinth, and the crocus, 

 one cannot help observing at once that they are all with- 

 out exception bulbous plants. Their large showy heads 

 of bloom require far more expenditure of raw material 

 than the tiny green flowers of the mercury, the thin 

 pellucid rays of the primrose, or even the bright golden 

 corolla of the lesser celandine. Moreover, if you look 

 closely at most of these bulbous blossoms, you will see 

 that they have very thick and fleshy petals, quite differ- 



