NATURE'S CALENDAR 



55 



APRIL 



April is the child of March rather than April i 



the father of May. Its weather is as un- 

 certain as the origin and meaning of its 

 name, but it is pretty sure to be wet and 

 chilly in northerly latitudes, however de- 

 lightful it may be in the " sunny South," 

 where one may "lean his cheek against 

 the air as if it were velvet," as has been 

 said. Now and then a balmy fragrant 

 day of that sort soothes and delights us, 

 even in bleak New England, whose snow- 

 drifts are not yet wholly melted, and 

 these days exert a wonderful growing in- 

 fluence upon the plants. April is the 

 month of unfolding leaves, which swell 

 with the sap now pumped up energeti- 

 cally from the frost-free earth, moist with 

 spring rains, and the woods take on a 

 singular and evanescent beauty, assum- 

 ing a misty, gauze-like robe of the most 

 delicate green and pale red, formed by 

 the starting foliage. The end of the 

 month has come before the forests are 

 fully leaved, even as far south as the 

 Potomac. 



Under foot, meanwhile, the herbage is 

 springing, green and tender, among the 

 drifted leaves, whose substance has sunk 



