SOME JANUARY BIRDS 



papery to the tip of its six-foot stalk, 

 The blue flag that was a foot high is 

 brown and withered alongside it, yet the 

 tender young leaves of the Ranunculus 

 repens growing between the two and not 

 having a tenth of their strength are ten- 

 der and young and green and unharmed 

 still. The first two died at a touch of the 

 frost. The buttercup leaves have been 

 frozen and thawed a score of times with- 

 out hurt. 



You might guess that the swamp water 

 has an elixir in it that saves the life of 

 the repens; but how about the Ranun- 

 culus bulbosus, European cousin of the 

 repens? That grows on the sandy hill- 

 side, and even the -root tips that extend 

 below its little white bulb have been 

 frozen stiff a score of times since the 

 woody stemmed goldenrod beside it 

 dropped dead, sere and brown, at the first 

 127 



