APPOINTMENTS 85 



means all. The mathematician would tell us that a 

 frost going twelve inches deep in sand and only ten 

 inches deep in loam, minus an inch or two owing to 

 the shelter of the arabis leaves, would throw the arabis 

 wheel and the anthophora wheel right out of gear ; 

 that other seasons would so much favour the bee and 

 retard the flower that the former would 'emerge and 

 starve before the other opened. Any one who had 

 seen our indoor daffodils a month ago would have 

 said that the doubles (planted three weeks earlier) 

 would blossom long before the singles, and that of 

 the singles there were three buds that would open 

 long before the others. But the singles overhauled 

 the doubles and waited for them. Both bowls 

 opened a blossom on the same day, and all the 

 single blooms were open within two days of one 

 another. 



However early or however late the first month of 

 spring, the year usually keeps time with its own 

 average from the middle of April onward. There is 

 a month's difference between the earliest and latest 

 recorded first appearance of the chiff-chaff and wheat- 

 ear, while the nightingale and swallow are rarely a 

 week out one way or the other, and the cuckoo, ring- 

 dove, nightjar, and landrail come every year on prac- 

 tically the same day. Last year the " tiny leaf " on 

 the elm-tree bole could be found anywhere in the 

 south on the ist of April, but this year the trees 

 seemed till two days ago hopelessly out of date. 

 It is better so. Nothing is more encouraging than 

 the splendid rush that Nature makes at the beginning 

 of April, when she has been well held in leash through 

 March. From one day to another we see marked 



