68 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



drop, that bloomed last month, will be apt to catch the 

 eye of the plant-hunter. If we do not mind a few 

 scratches from the gordian knots of smilax, a little hunt- 

 ing will discover another yellow blossom, the erythro- 

 nium; a gracefully nodding, lily-like flower, perched 

 upon a stem six inches high, which, in turn, springs from 

 between two mottled brown leaves, that are themselves 

 quite pretty. Yellow buttercups, too, are now ready to 

 be gathered ; and who does not love them for the recol- 

 lections they bring up of those irrecoverable days as full 

 of sunshine as are these flowers' golden chalices. 



Again, a little closer search discloses the beautiful tri- 

 colored violet, often starring grassy spaces between the 

 larger trees, and crowding out even the grass that strug- 

 gles to maintain itself in the same places. It almost 

 causes the recollection of the past winter to vanish, to 

 be able to gather violets ; and resting at the foot of a 

 tall tree, basking in noontide sunshine, and holding a 

 nosegay of these pretty flowers, one can almost say, 

 " Spring has come ;" but when we reach the top of the 

 blnfP, and a breath of searching north wind whistles in 

 our ears, we laugh at such a thought as a childish fancy, 

 and resign ourselves to further waiting for the departure 

 of winter. 



But the botanist cannot rest here. There is early 

 saxifrage, with its large cluster of white flowers on a 

 scape high above the dead leaves of the overarching 

 trees, and its hairy spatulate leaves at the base of the 

 stem. Blood-root, too, with its single white flower, will 

 not escape notice ; and better than all, as we venture 

 out upon the meadow, are the beautiful " Quaker girls." 



