April and Early May 



bloodroot ; that that vindictive looking 

 spear, composed of closely plaited leaves, 

 heralds the yet remote appearance of the 

 unlovely flowers of the false hellebore ; 

 that these slender needles will expand with 

 the feathery foliage and fragile blossoms 

 of the anemone. 



But from some last year leaves we are 

 enabled to predict that from certain silken 

 coils will peep the blue eyes of the liver- 

 wort. We greet joyfully the familiar ever- 

 green leaves of the trailing arbutus, and 

 when our eager fingers have pushed aside 

 the drifts of dead leaves, we discover a 

 few early, aromatic clusters of its waxen 

 flowers. 



Not till the shad-bush flings its white 

 clusters across the brook, does the blood- 

 root consent to lay aside its wraps and 

 spangle the ground with its snowy gold- 

 centred blossoms. The purity of this 

 flower is only accentuated by the blood- 

 like drops which ooze from its broken 



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