THE DANDELION. 103 



peeping out from withered leaves, dry stalks, and 

 desolation, as a herald, telling us that nature is 

 not dead, but reposing, and will awaken to life 

 again. And some of us, perhaps, can remember the 

 pleasure it afforded us in early days, when we first 

 noticed its golden blossoms under the southern 

 shelter of the cottage hedge, thinking that the 

 ' winter was past,' and that ' the time of the singing 

 of birds was come ;' and yet, possibly, when seen, it 

 may renew some of that childish delight, though 

 the fervour of expectation is cooled by experience 

 and time. The form of this flower, with its ligulate 

 petals many times doubled, is elegant and perfect; 

 the brightness and liveliness of the yellow, like the 

 warm rays of an evening sun, are not exceeded in 

 any blossom, native or foreign, that I know of; 

 and this, having faded away, is succeeded by a 

 head of down, which loosened from its receptacle, 

 and floating in the breeze, comes sailing calmly 

 along before us, freighted with a seed at its base ; 

 but so accurately adjusted is its bouyant power to 

 the burden it bears, that steadily passing on its 

 way, it rests at last in some cleft or cranny in the 

 earth, preparatory to its period of germination, 

 appearing more like a flight of animated creatures 

 than the seed of a plant. This is a very beautiful 

 appointment ! but so common an event as hardly 

 to be noticed by us ; yet it accomplishes effectually 

 the designs of nature, and plants the species at 



