LESSER CELANDINE, or PILEWORT. 



Hanu/iculus ficaria. 



Class PoLYANDRiA. Order Monogyxia. Nat. Orel. Ra>-uncu- 

 LACE.E. Crowfoot Tribe. 



Who that loves summer sniishine and open- 

 ing flowers does not welcome this " herald of 

 the gentlest gales ? " Little children rmi into 

 the meadows to find the daisy, and before the 

 buttercup has yet glittered among the grass 

 they may see 



" The vernal Pilewort's globe unfold 

 Its star-like disk of burnish'd gold; 

 Starlike in seeming form, from far 

 It shines too like a glistening star." 



AVith the exception of the dandelion it is the 

 gayest and brightest of our early flowers, and 

 when the lark and the thrush are welcoming 

 the spring, and summer birds have come across 

 the ocean to sino- their son^fs in our woodland 

 trees, then every hedge-bank is studded with 

 the Celandine as with golden stars, and from 

 March till the end of May it gleams among the 

 grass of the meadow, flora's garland is then 

 Xo. 5. . . ^ ^ 



