22 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



summer advances, the plant proceeds to put on 

 something a little more like summer clothing. 



What traveller has not noticed that most railway 

 embankments are more blessed with flowers than the 

 fields lying just behind them ? We are more forced 

 than ever to see this in these early days of spring. 

 Besides the colt's-foot the more generous suns of the 

 dandelion are here strewn thickly, though the children 

 in the village have scarcely found their first blossom. 

 And all manner of green mounds are rising, as fool's- 

 parsley, goutweed, and other luscious things come 

 shooting up as they dare not do in the field. The 

 well-drained slope no doubt suits them well ; but 

 there is no doubt, also, that a long immunity from 

 grazing is largely to account for the precocity of 

 these ribbon-like areas piercing England in all direc- 

 tions. When summer has come, the fool's-parsley 

 will stretch yards into the field, whence it will sweep 

 in a foaming wave almost to the top of the rose- 

 canopied hedge. But just now, not a fern-like leaf 

 is showing beyond the shelter of the clawed black- 

 berry briars or the sturdy, bayoneted blackthorns. 

 The same phenomenon presents itself both on the 

 south side of the hedge and on the north, whence 

 we may conclude that it is not only climatic shelter 

 that is to account for this partiality. The roots that 

 lie out in the field are the inheritors of an experience 

 that taught that it is not worth while coming up till 

 there is plenty of grass to offer better attraction than 

 parsley for the cattle that inhabit the region. 



Poison is the chief weapon by means of which the 

 early plant preserves its leaves from the hunger of 

 other creatures. Green as the world is, the rabbits 



