208 WILD BIRDS 



many a short trailer of small leaves to show in the 

 hedges throughout a mild winter ; and these again 

 look somewhat weak and pinched. 



Then there is wood sorrel, which often wears green 

 through the winter. I have seen many plants of 

 wood sorrel in leaf in February, and in some places 

 it keeps so through the winter : among the dead 

 hazel and oak leaves and the mosses in the woods 

 our sensitive plant is quite lively and safe through 

 December and January. There is the same irreg- 

 ularity among its leaves on wet, dry, cold or warm 

 February days as in the summer : where one leaf 

 of a sorrel plant is lying flat and full open, another 

 is inclined to shut ; whilst a third is quite closed. 



The wood sorrel leaves look fairly fresh in February, 

 but neither they nor any others I have seen not 

 even cow parsley's have the lovely brightness of 

 the leaves of celandine. The spot to look for these 

 tiny things is a bit of almost bare ground under 

 trees about the house. They are high polished, and 

 at this stage some of them appear almost heart- 

 shaped. Each leaf pushes up in the form of a neat 

 little roll, as of parchment. We see this where only 

 the tip of the leaf has as yet got through the top soil. 

 But, by the time the tiny leaf is free of the earth, 

 the whole is unrolled. The lesser celandine, being 

 a very early flower, will thrive under massive trees ; 

 for by the time the tree leaf is thick, celandine's 

 blossom time is almost over, so that it no longer 

 needs the strong sunlight. 



