CHAPTER XI. 

 THE AUTUMN CROCUS. 



ft He shall return to the days of his youth." JOB xxxiii. 25. 



T F the snowdrop may be called the morning star 

 -L that ushers in the dawn of the floral year, the 

 crocus may be said to be its sunrise. No vernal sight 

 is more charming than the yellow yolks of this flower 

 appearing in clusters above the naked soil in the deso- 

 late garden borders. And when the closed petals open 

 their warm hearts to the sun, the golden cups are filled 

 to the brim with beauty, and have a jewel-like brilliancy 

 in the transfiguring light that reminds us of the fine 

 gold of the New Jerusalem "like unto transparent 

 glass." The first-born of the children of the sun, it is 

 the beginning of his excellency and strength. It seems 

 as if nature's wondrous alchemy had changed all vege- 

 table life at this season into the crocus-gold; at the 

 sight of which our heart leaps up as the poet's did 

 when he saw the rainbow. But besides this beautiful 

 species, whose perfection leaves nothing to be altered 

 or added, there is another spring crocus whose original 



