NATURE'S CALENDAR 



fume, ranging through the tints of shell- 

 pink, before the ground has yet dried in 

 the shelter of the hemlock woods. The 

 saxifrage sends up its little tufts of tiny 

 fiovvers, purely white on the cliffs, crowd- 

 mg the wonderfully feathery, fern-like 

 leaves of the Dutchman's breeches, whose 

 rows of comically shaped but dainty, yel- 

 low-tipped white blossoms are now hang- 

 ing from bending stalks. At the base of 

 the rocks, if the ground be sufficiently 

 rich, stand the white flowers of the 

 . bloodroot, which are not only inwrapped, 

 as buds, in a folded leaf, but even take 

 the precaution of folding up their glossy- 

 white petals at night. This wise pre- 

 caution against the chilly night is also 

 adopted by the pale-blue, pink, and albino 

 flowers of the liv^er-leaf {Hepatica), per- 

 haps also by the cross-shaped blossoms 

 of the cruciferae that bloom at this sea- 

 son, by the delicate flushed bells of the 

 anemone, and by the pert, thin petals of 

 the rue anemone. The perishable, pink- 

 striped flowers of the spring beauty cer- 

 tainly shrink again into the semblance of 

 buds when the evening shadows fall upon 

 them. 



What is more brilliantly white in April 

 than the showy domes of the shad-bush 

 (noting the coming of the welcome fish) 

 that dot the hill -slopes with as brave 

 a show of high lights as even the dog- 

 woods can furnish } Behind it, on north- 

 ern hill -sides, flourish large bushes of 



