Spring 



T 



HE earliest blossom, the skunk-cabbage flower, visited by bees in snowy March, 

 Revels of the sprouting maple-seeds. Peeping frogs: spring music from 

 the swamp : Hy lodes, Hyla, and cricket -frog. Imitation of Hy lodes. Tree- 

 toads in March. Vernal greeting from the pines. Clicking cones. Hygro- 

 metric hocus-pocus of pine-cone. The squirrel as a botany teacher. Spiral 

 arrangement of cone-scales. Spring blossoms: avant-courrieres among the 

 wild flowers. Blossoms under snow. Poetical allusions. Quickening seeds. 

 Clover infants, beech babies, and maples in swaddling-clothes. " Great oaks 

 from little acorns grow." Masquerade of the maple-seeds. A butterfly sere- 

 nade : musical wings of the "yellow-edge." Caterpillar swarms of Antiopa. 

 A rosy-winged rattling locust and his agile emerald companion of the spring 

 woods. A water-fairy: filmy opalescent sylph of the snow-pools. Birds of 

 April. The poets' harbingers. Bird songs in onomatopoeia. The grackles" 

 " clatterin'." The " partridge " and his mysterious "drum." Authorities at 

 odds. Our loftiest weed. Its beautiful pith. A tall story. The hay-fever 

 reprobate. Tenacious oak-leaves defiant of winter storms. A prehistoric pot- 

 ter ; earthen jugs of the vase-maker wasp and their lively contents. Unfold- 

 ing buds. Vernal tints in the bourgeoning woods. A poetical bit of mirrored 

 truth. Winter-bud secrets. Beautiful designs in buds. The autumn dog- 

 wood bud and its botanical lesson. A flower that is not a flower. The toad 

 and his bagpipe. Drowsy drool of the twilight marshes. A frog-song mimic. 

 Mimicry of toad song. A very homely singer. Southern frog music extraor- 

 dinary. A Japanese frog trio. May-apples and false May-apples. Dr. Gray's 

 "pigs and boys." The mandrake May-apple described. The swamp-pink 

 apple and its mission. A poison May-apple. A blossom in masquerade; 



